


Keep the change

by madamteatime



Series: Keep the Change [1]
Category: DBSK|Tohoshinki|TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, M/M, Mpreg, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-20
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-09 00:13:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 56,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/767738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamteatime/pseuds/madamteatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a tough world out there for a fledgling vampire. In between skeptical victims, teething his first fangs and fighting his urge for blood Yunho has to find himself a human guardian before the Department of Disease and Pest Control (or something worse) catches him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Yunho wakes in an unknown room, in an unknown bed, with an unknown person beside him.  
  
He blinks up at the ceiling for a few seconds, trying to orient himself, before sitting upright with a soft groan. A chuckle sounds from his right.  
  
“Morning tiger,” the man he’s in bed with says. He’s exceptionally pale, has greasy, shoulder-length black hair and a long nose. A lit cigarette dangles out of the corner of his mouth. Yunho can hardly believe he got a hotel room with someone so creepy-looking – just how smashed had he been last night?  
  
“I don’t even remember your name,” he rasps. Creepy Guy’s grin is all teeth.  
  
“You never asked, so I never gave it. You were far more concerned with getting me out of my clothes.”  
  
A blush rakes its way across Yunho’s cheeks. He aches in ways that suggest he did some truly obscene things the night before. Creepy Guy stubs out his cigarette and rolls out of bed and Yunho watches him pull on his clothes with dull interest. He feels strange, sort of sluggish and disoriented in a way that goes beyond a mere hangover.  
  
“Did you drug me?” Yunho mumbles.  
  
“Why would I do that when you were practically begging me to take you?” Creepy Guy squints at him. “Don’t you remember anything?”  
  
Yunho has a vague recollection of crying out for  _more_  and  _harder_  that he is absolutely not going to admit to right now.  
  
“No,” he says. He doesn’t usually get so wasted, but yesterday he’d landed the lead role in his dance and theatre company’s upcoming production and his colleagues had thrown him a party and – everything after that is a blur. Yunho stumbles to his feet and gropes around for his clothes.  
  
“Well, uh – thanks for last night I guess,” he says. Creepy Guy doesn’t seem bothered by his haste to get away, though he does toss him his muffler once Yunho’s dressed.  
  
“You’ll need it,” he says. Yunho’s neck feels sore so he assumes it must be covered in hickeys. He can’t even face himself in the mirror long enough to check – he just jerks his head in thanks and wraps it around his neck.  
  
“See you kitten,” Creepy Guy calls after him. Yunho shudders and leaves.  
  
\- - -  
  
It doesn’t take him long to realise that something is very, very wrong.  
  
The sky outside is blanketed with grey clouds but still sunlight seems to stab at him. Yunho pulls the collar of his jacket up and tries to huddle inside his clothes until he gets home. He feels light-headed and dizzy with thirst, but even three glasses of water can’t quench it. The room spins, driving him to his knees. His neck throbs, and Yunho yanks the scarf off and crawls to the mirror.  
  
Two neat puncture wounds stand out stark against his skin. Yunho tilts his head and stares at the bite.  
  
“What the – ”  
  
His eyes flash a demonic red in the mirror. His gums ache with the deep-seated urge to bite down on something.  
  
“Fuck.”  
  
The bastard turned him. He must have been too drunk to realise he’d accidentally picked up a vampire; a rogue one too, from the looks of him, because a tagged vampire never would have turned a stranger.  
  
“Fuck!” Yunho repeats. “Son of a – ”  
  
He grabs the scarf and storms out of his house, but by the time he gets back to the hotel their room is empty and the rogue is gone. He’s left no name with reception. There’s no trace of him at all.  
  
Confused and angry, Yunho retreats back home. He recognises now that the change is happening in him slowly – his senses are heightened and sunlight makes him hiss and arch away. He doesn’t have the fangs yet, but the ache in his teeth suggests they’ll be there soon enough. Yunho groans and bites down on his knuckles, trying desperately to stave off the thirst he now recognises as bloodlust.  
  
It works for a while until the urge to feed becomes too much to bear. Dizzy, confused and half out of his mind Yunho finds himself drawn to a club two blocks down. The throb of bodies and the scent of fresh blood almost knocks him out the moment he enters. He’s too incoherent to chat someone up long enough to lure them back to his place – but luckily for him Yunho is blessed with exceptional good looks, which means that within five minutes of him entering the club two women are already making a beeline for him. He picks the shorter one – easier to subdue – and they weave their way towards a side door.  
  
He pulls her into a deserted alleyway and slams her up against the brick wall. The woman makes a startled but pleased sound and arches as Yunho descends on her neck. He bites down, anticipating a burst of blood, quivering with need –  
  
Nothing happens. Yunho bites her again, gnaws helplessly for a couple of seconds before giving up. It’s no use; his fangs haven’t grown in yet. He’s a vampire with no fangs. He’s a vampire and he can’t even feed himself.  
  
He makes a frustrated sound and pulls back. The woman stares at him, then realisation dawns and she wrinkles her nose.  
  
“Are you a  _fledgling_?” she asks.  
  
Yunho sighs. “Uh – yeah.”  
  
“Gross. Have you even had your shots yet?” she demands. Yunho glares at her.  
  
“Do I look like I’ve had anything but the worst day of my life? Some bastard I was with last night turned me without me even realizing and now here I am.”  
  
That seems to inspire some pity amidst her disgust. “Rogues are all fun and games until someone loses their mortality.”  
  
“You’re telling me,” Yunho runs a hand through his hair. She straightens and fixes her clothes.  
  
“Listen, you’re pretty cute so I’m going to give you some advice. Get your shots. They’ll suppress the bloodlust, make you resistant to sunlight, the works. I think there’s even one for allergic reactions to garlic. There’s a clinic just down the road – I’m not sure if it’s still open but they’ll have everything you need.”  
  
Yunho sags with relief. “Thanks. Sorry I tried to – ” he gestures towards her neck. The woman waves him off and he stumbles out of the alley and down the road.  
  
\- - -  
  
The clinic is closed, but Yunho is too desperate to care. He grabs a rock, smashes open the back window and climbs through , the tinkle of broken glass impossibly loud in the night.  
  
It’s dim and quiet inside. Light spills in from the hallway and from its meager glow Yunho can make out various glass cabinets full of vials. He goes over to them and skims through the labels, but none of them are what he’s looking for.  
  
“No – no – no – fuck, where is it – ”  
  
“Hello?”  
  
Yunho freezes. Footsteps sound in the hallway.  
  
“Is someone there?”  
  
He makes to dart away, but he’s too slow. The lights flicker on and outline the frame of a tall man in the doorway. He’s wearing the white lab coat of a doctor, though surely he’s much too young to be out of med school already. He’s slender and handsome, all wide brown eyes and soft, generous lips, and he’s staring at Yunho in mute surprise.  
  
“How did you get in here?” he asks. Yunho shifts uncomfortably.  
  
“Broke your back window?”  
  
The man stares at him for a moment longer before his lips twitch. “Wow. Remind me to tell my supervisor to extend our opening hours.”  
  
For the first time since his nightmare of a transformation began Yunho smiles. He relaxes slightly and perches on a stool.  
  
“I could really use some help. Last night a rogue vampire turned me and I didn’t realise it until this morning and now – ”  
  
“And now you’re about two seconds away from jumping me, got it.”  
  
He starts moving around the room, grabbing bottles and opening drawers full of injections. Yunho watches him, eyes following his graceful movements. He rolls up his sleeve and extends his arm when prompted, and the other man swabs his wrist with antiseptic.  
  
“I’m Yunho,” he offers after a while. Brown eyes flicker up at him.  
  
“Changmin.”  
  
The first needle goes in, but Yunho isn’t really paying attention. He’s too busy examining the angles of Changmin’s face, admiring the way the light hits his cheekbones.  
  
A second injection, and this time Yunho flinches. That one hurt. A brief smile ghosts across Changmin’s face.  
  
“Maybe you should concentrate on keeping your arm still instead of ogling me,” he says without looking up. Yunho blushes and looks away.  
  
Five injections later Yunho is finally starting to feel normal again. He rolls his sleeve back down and sighs in relief; his headache is gone, as is the ache in his gums, and he can finally think about something other than ripping the nearest person’s throat out. He’s especially glad about that last one, because the nearest person right now is Changmin and Yunho really doesn’t want to rip out a throat that pretty.  
  
Distracted, he doesn’t realise Changmin asked him something until he registers the expectant look on the other’s face.  
  
“What?”  
  
“I said, have you gotten your fangs yet?” It’s clear Changmin thinks he’s slow and possibly a little stupid. Yunho doesn’t particularly care as long as Changmin keeps talking in that soft, smooth baritone of his.  
  
“Not yet. Uh. Do they usually take long to grow in?”  
  
“Depending on the person it can take anywhere between one day to a week. I gave you something to manage the pain, otherwise you’ll be biting down on every available surface like a teething baby.” Changmin starts cleaning up, throwing away the used needles and empty packaging and putting the medicine bottles back on their shelves.  
  
Yunho smiles sheepishly. “Thanks. I’m pretty new to all this so I don’t really know what to do. I’d never even met a vampire before until last night.”  
  
Changmin stills. He turns and meets Yunho’s eye.  
  
“How could you never have met a vampire before?”  
  
Yunho shrugs. “I’m from the countryside. We only have werewolves in my town and they’re all tagged.”  
  
“Oh dear,” Changmin rubs his chin. The back of Yunho’s neck prickles.  
  
“What? What is it?”  
  
He really only has a general idea of sub-human society, so Changmin’s pause worries Yunho. The supernatural virus had first broken out some 80 years ago and soon been classified into two distinct strains – lycanthropy and vampirism. The initial reaction of the general populace had been panic, followed quickly by antagonism. Fledglings in particular were notorious for their lack of self-control, and a couple of dead humans later things started to get really ugly. Meanwhile the virus continued to spread with startling speed, until every one in twenty people had it. Policy-makers staggered and fell under the pressure to do something and eventually civil war seemed imminent; until, one night, a scientist stumbled upon an unexpected solution: a suppressant for vampiric bloodlust. This was followed quickly by further discoveries – chemicals to stop werewolf transformations, to inhibit the growth of fledgling fangs, even to make blood taste bad to vampires. Drugs won the war, and the supernatural side lost before it had even begun. Since then more drugs had been developed to help supernaturals function normally in everyday life.  
  
“How much do you know about the Partnership Act?” Changmin asks.  
  
“All those infected by the supernatural virus must be given their shots, placed in the care of a human ally and tagged. Those who refuse or run are classified as rogues and declared enemies of the state,” Yunho recites the things he learnt in school. Changmin smiles briefly.  
  
“That is the bare bones of it, yes. After the war was won early sentiments leaned towards wiping out all those infected, but many people felt uncomfortable with the idea of such a large-scale massacre. So instead the government enacted the partnership policy, whereby those infected by the virus would have to be placed in the care of a human guardian who would ensure that they received all their suppressant shots and generally vouch for their ability to safely re-enter society. These became known as tagged supernaturals, after the little chip that was inserted under their skin as proof of their safe nature.” Changmin paces back and forth as he talks, his hands gesturing expressively.  
  
“Maybe the intentions of the Act have remained pure out in the countryside, but things are a little different here in the city. Over time many of the supernaturals fell into service roles, until what was intended to be an equal partnership between human and sub-human became more of a master-servant relationship. Naturally, there were supernaturals who protested these changing roles. They refused to be tagged or inoculated. They became rogues, and created covens and packs that existed outside the system.” Changmin pauses and fixes Yunho with a searing look. Yunho has the distinct impression that Changmin is judging him for allowing himself to be turned by a rogue and shifts uncomfortably. Changmin looks away and resumes pacing.  
  
“The Department of Disease and Pest Control was created to manage the increasing rogue problem. Their job is to round up all untagged supernaturals, inoculate them by force and place them into care homes. In some extreme cases they may incarcerate or even kill resistant rogues. It’s unlucky for any untagged supernatural to get caught by the Department – they’re harsh and unforgiving, no matter how young of a fledgling you might be. Which means you need to find yourself a guardian before they find you.”  
  
Yunho bristles. “I don’t need someone to take care of me.”  
  
“You do now,” Changmin says flatly. “You’re a vampire. You’re considered to be a danger to society until a human can vouch for you.”  
  
They eye each other for a few seconds, Yunho defiant, Changmin matter-of-fact.  
  
“Could you do it?” Yunho asks suddenly. Changmin blinks.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Could you be my guardian?”  
  
Changmin shakes his head and moves towards a filing cabinet. “No. But we do have a database of registered carers. I can put you into the system and try to find you a match.” He pulls out a folder and shows Yunho a list of names, presumably of humans looking for supernatural partners. Some of them have pictures attached.  
  
“What kind of people actively seek out a supernatural buddy?” He wonders.  
  
“All kinds of people. Lonely widowers with no children. Single mothers who need household help. Even just people looking for a roommate to share the rent. The minimum length of partnership is six months so it’s ideal for a lot of people. Pensioners are particularly popular amongst the young crowd.”  
  
Yunho raises an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”  
  
Changmin closes the folder and meets his eye. “Because your tagged status remains valid even if your human dies. Supernaturals with a dead human are free to do as they please.”  
  
“That’s awful,” Yunho says. “And seems like a really bad idea. You’d think supernaturals everywhere would be killing their human guardians for a taste of freedom.”  
  
“The penalty for murder is death,” Changmin says. “Not many would risk that. Besides, the partnership system is not a punishment. It can be extremely rewarding for both parties – it creates a bond that can last a lifetime.”  
  
Their eyes meet, and Yunho is struck again by how incredibly good-looking Changmin is. He leans his elbow on the table and props his chin in his hand. “So you’ll be my guardian, right?”  
  
Changmin’s expression shutters. He moves away to replace the file. “No.”  
  
“Why not?” Yunho whines. “Don’t you like me?”  
  
Changmin’s lips twitch briefly. “The system will find you someone more suitable for the role. It would be easier for you not to get involved in my life.”  
  
“Why, you some sort of criminal?” Yunho demands. “Do you lure patients into your clinic and chop them to pieces?”  
  
Changmin laughs softly and shakes his head. “Hardly. Anyway, it’s not  _my_  clinic. I’m just a lab assistant here. I’m doing a PhD in biochemistry.”  
  
“Student by day, crazed butcher by night,” Yunho says solemnly.  
  
“I’m not a criminal!”  
  
Yunho widens his eyes. “Changmin. Are you batman?”  
  
Changmin bursts out laughing. Yunho grins, pleased at having made such an intelligent man laugh.  
  
“So you’ll do it right?” he insists.  
  
“I said no.”  
  
“I’ll just follow you home.”  
  
“Don’t you dare follow me home,” Changmin levels a threatening finger in Yunho’s direction.  
  
Yunho follows him home.  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Changmin doesn’t have anything against supernaturals per se. He’s grown up around them his whole life. He’s not speciest like so many humans. But he can’t be Yunho’s guardian, no matter how cute the other man might be.  
  
“Look, I don't have time for this,” Changmin says as he unlocks his door. Yunho has trailed him home like a particularly annoying cat.  
  
“But I need your help. Aren’t doctors supposed to help people?”  
  
“I’m not a doctor.”  
  
“You’re getting a doctorate,” Yunho points out. Changmin rolls his eyes and pushes open his door. He lives in a small one-bedroom apartment on the lower end of town. It’s not located in a particularly great neighborhood, but it’s his and that makes it perfect.  
  
Yunho starts to follow him in, but he can’t seem to get past the threshold. Changmin grins at the confusion on his face.  
  
“I have to invite you in. It’s some silly vampire rule.”  
  
Yunho blinks, then meets his eye. His gaze is wide and pleading and would have easily broken a weaker man.  
  
Changmin is not a weak man. He smiles sweetly and closes the door in Yunho’s face.  
  
\- - -  
  
The next day Yunho appears on his doorstep with a pot of homemade fried rice and a brilliant grin on his face.  
  
“I made you food. See, I wouldn’t be completely useless to you,” he says. His fangs are starting to grow in, tiny little canines that show when he smiles. It’s kind of adorable.  
  
Changmin takes the food but doesn’t let him in.  
  
It doesn’t taste very good, but it’s the thought that counts. Changmin eats the whole thing.  
  
\- - -  
  
The day after that Yunho turns up with an entire roasted chicken. Changmin fights a helpless smile.  
  
“Are you seriously courting me with food?” he asks.  
  
“Is it working?” Yunho says. Changmin forces the smile off his face.  
  
“No.”  
  
Yunho grins a toothy little grin because he knows it’s working.  
  
\- - -  
  
By the third day Changmin relents and finally lets Yunho into his house. They have dinner – though Yunho no longer needs to eat – and Changmin cooks while Yunho tells him about growing up in a small country town. He’s wanted to be a dancer since as long as he can remember, and when the opportunity arose for him to pursue his dream in the city he moved without a second thought. A year later he’s working at one of the premier dance and theatre companies in the country. Yunho trails off there, and Changmin gives him a curious look.  
  
“What is it?” he asks. Yunho looks down.  
  
“I haven’t gone to work since I got turned. I was supposed to play the lead role in our upcoming production. . .they’ve probably given it to someone else by now. . .”  
  
Changmin looks away. He understands why – Yunho can’t go in to work until he’s tagged, otherwise his workplace will be forced to call the Department and have him arrested. He clears his throat and turns back to the stove. There’s silence for a couple of seconds, then Yunho shakes himself out of it and perks up again.  
  
“What about you? You grew up in the city, right?”  
  
There’s a pause. Changmin doesn’t answer the question.  
  
“Dinner’s ready. Can you get the plates?” Changmin says, and Yunho rises to comply. They don’t mention Changmin’s refusal to discuss his personal life.  
  
\- - -  
  
A week later Changmin jerks awake to the sound of Yunho tripping over the carpet in his bedroom. He rolls over and turns the lamp on and Yunho gives him a sheepish grin.  
  
“Sorry.”  
  
“What are you doing here?” Changmin rasps.  
  
“Um. There were people from the Department knocking on my door. . .I think someone from work must have tipped them off. So I left out the fire escape and this was the first place I thought to come,” Yunho says. “You shouldn’t leave your window wide open, this isn’t a very safe area,” he adds. Changmin glares at him, still half asleep and very grumpy about it.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Yunho says again. Up close Changmin realises he’s trembling, breathless and scared. He sighs and pulls the covers back.  
  
“Come on. You can sleep here tonight.”  
  
Yunho dives into bed and immediately clings to him. Changmin sighs again.  
  
“You are way more trouble than you’re worth, I hope you know that,” he says. Yunho smiles and nuzzles into his shoulder.  
  
“Thanks Changminnie.”  
  
“Don’t call me that.”  
  
“Okay Changminnie.”  
  
“And keep your fangs to yourself.”  
  
Yunho falls asleep with a smile on his face.  
  
Changmin doesn’t realise that he does too.  
  
\- - -  
  
It takes him a week and three days, but eventually Changmin agrees to be Yunho’s guardian. It’s not like he has much of a choice – Yunho is too scared to go back to his apartment so they’re basically living together already. Changmin goes and packs Yunho’s things and brings them back to his place. He comes home to find Yunho sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed, practically glowing with happiness. He beams at Changmin with the force of a thousand suns.  
  
“Did I say thank you yet?” Yunho asks.  
  
“You jumped on me and knocked us both to the floor,” Changmin reminds him. Yunho laughs, his fangs flashing.  
  
“I can do it again if you like.”  
  
“Don’t,” Changmin rubs his forehead. He suspects he’ll regret this, but it’s already too late to go back. He’s registered as a carer and gotten a personalised tag made at the clinic. It activates with a scanner and then he just has to insert it somewhere on Yunho’s person.  
  
“Where do you want it?” Changmin asks, settling on the bed beside the excited vampire. Yunho hums thoughtfully.  
  
“Where do people usually get it?”  
  
“Arms, mostly. I’ve seen a couple with ankle tags.”  
  
“How about here?” Yunho lifts up his hair to expose the nape of his neck.  
  
Changmin swallows. The nape is a particularly sensitive area; most people find a tag there too reminiscent of a collar. It’s too personal. Too demeaning.  
  
Yunho is blinking at him expectantly. Changmin clears his throat.  
  
“The nape is. . .that’s fine,” he says quickly. Yunho smiles, shuffles around and bows his head. Changmin swabs the area clean, his free hand coming to rest on Yunho’s shoulder.  
  
“Hold still. This will sting a little,” he says. Yunho nods, then goes inhumanly still. Changmin picks up the tiny chip that is the tag and runs the scanner over it. It blinks red, then turns green. Changmin inserts it into the piercing gun and places it against Yunho’s neck.  
  
“Ready?” he whispers. Some unnamed emotion rises in him.  
  
“Just do it,” Yunho murmurs.  
  
Changmin pulls the trigger. A small hiss escapes Yunho. When he pulls away there’s a bump on the back of Yunho’s neck, and the green glow of the tag is visible through his skin. Yunho turns around and smiles at him, and Changmin finds himself smiling back.  
  
“Is it done?” Yunho asks.  
  
“All done.”  
  
Yunho folds his arms around Changmin and hugs him tight, and in that moment Changmin knows that nothing will ever be the same again.  
  


 


	3. Chapter 3

Living together is an adjustment. Changmin is neat and organised and generally conducts himself with a quiet sort of dignity. Yunho is loud and messy and passionate and clumsy. They clash on almost every aspect it’s possible for two people living together to clash on. And yet somehow – for some inexplicable reason – they fit. They fit like they were made for each other and Yunho knows that even when Changmin yells at him for making a mess in the bathroom, even when they fight over who’s going to do the dishes or take the trash out, even when he calls Changmin a nag – he knows he made the right choice.  
  
Two weeks after he’s turned, one week after Changmin tags him, Yunho goes back to work. He has no idea what to expect – the extent of his communication with company director Kang has been to text him that he’s been violently ill. But he knows that rumours of what’s happened to him have spread like wildfire and that it’s probably an open secret that he’s been turned. Sick with nerves, Yunho pushes open the door of the theater and walks in.  
  
Practice is under way, but everyone stops to stare as he walks up to them. There’s an awkward silence, then Director Kang moves towards him.  
  
“Yunho! It’s so good to see you,” he smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. Yunho smiles back nervously, careful to keep his lips folded over his teeth.  
  
“Hey. It’s good to be back.” He glances towards the stage. “Can I join in?”  
  
Kang hesitates, then fixes a smile back on his face. “Of course! Unfortunately Jungmoo’s had to replace you – ”  
  
“It’s fine,” Yunho says quickly. “I’ll take a smaller role.”  
  
Kang nods and Yunho joins the others on stage. There’s an awkward moment where nobody really knows what to do, then a dancer smiles and welcomes him back and a stage hand pats his shoulder and Yunho allows himself to relax a little. Things go smoothly after that, though he can feel the weight of curious eyes on him and hear the whispers circulating behind slender hands. Things like ‘unnatural’, ‘inhuman’, ‘too weird’. He’s faster and stronger than the others now but instead of endearing him to them it makes him an outcast. Yunho ignores the whispers and keeps his head up, but by the end of the day he knows it’s no good. He is no longer human, and that means he no longer fits in.  
  
Exhausted and demoralised, Yunho finds a quiet moment for himself in one of the empty practice rooms. He spins in front of the mirror, amazed at the precision with which his body can move now, the perfect fluidity of each dance move. The others are right – it’s unnatural. It’s also beautiful, but in a way that makes the skin crawl.  
  
The door opens and Kang comes in. Yunho stops spinning and turns to face him. He should be out of breath, but he’s barely even broken a sweat. Kang hesitates.  
  
“Listen, we need to talk. . .” he starts. Yunho doesn’t want to hear this. He grabs a towel and slings it around his neck.  
  
“Good practice today. What time do you want me to come in tomorrow?”  
  
“Yunho. This isn’t going to work.”  
  
“My role? I’m happy to take on something different – ”  
  
“No – Yunho, listen to me. You are a great dancer. I knew it from the moment you first set foot in here. But things are different now – audiences don’t want to see a supernatural on stage, all that inhuman speed and strength. It’s cheating. They want raw, human performances and I’m sorry but you just can’t give that anymore.”  
  
Yunho stares at him. He can hear the sound of Kang’s heartbeat, fast and nervous. Bile rises in his throat.  
  
“What are you trying to say?” he whispers. He can see his dream shattering to pieces around him, and all because he made one mistake. Kang looks away.  
  
“Don’t make me spell it out Yunho. I’m sure there are other companies that would be happy to take you – ”  
  
“No,” Yunho says. “There are no other companies.”  
  
He swallows. Somebody with less pride might have begged, but Yunho won’t stoop to that. He lifts his chin, grabs his bag and leaves.  
  
\- - -  
  
By the time Changmin gets home Yunho is lying curled up in bed, buried under a pile of blankets with his face turned into a pillow. Changmin drops his bag in the doorway and walks over to crouch beside him.  
  
“Hey. Are you okay?” he asks softly. Yunho lifts his head and regards him with blank eyes.  
  
“I got fired,” he says. “The company doesn’t want a vampire dancing for them. They think it’ll alienate audiences.”  
  
Changmin is silent, but his face is a mask of pain and sympathy. Yunho sits up and stares down at his hands.  
  
“You should’ve seen the way they looked at me. Nobody’s ever looked at me like that before. There’s a reason they call it the Department of Disease and Pest Control. That’s what they think we are – diseased pests, only good for being social outcasts.”  
  
His eyes flash red with anger. Changmin’s never seen them do that before. He draws back a little and gets to his feet and Yunho stares up at him and there’s some dark, indefinable expression on his face.  
  
“I’m not diseased,” Yunho says fiercely. “Or a pest.”  
  
“I don’t think you are,” Changmin says, voice soft. He knows he needs to be careful right now, because the truth is that Yunho is much stronger than him and could easily overpower him if he chose. Yunho’s eyes search his face before his expression shutters and he rolls out of bed.  
  
“I’m going out,” he says abruptly.  
  
“I don’t think that’s such a great idea right now – ” Changmin starts.  
  
“I don’t give a fuck.”  
  
“Yunho, you can’t – ” Changmin grabs his arm and Yunho snarls at him, fangs extended almost past his lower lip. He looks angry and terrifying, but Changmin stands his ground. “If you go out in this state you’ll just end up hurting someone and trust me you’ll regret that.”  
  
“Let go of me,” Yunho snaps.  
  
“No.”  
  
“Changmin. If you don’t let me go I’m going to end up hurting someone in here.”  
  
“I think I’d prefer that.”  
  
Yunho stares at him. Slowly, the anger drains out of him and he turns to face Changmin properly. His hands rise to cup his face and tilt his head to the side. Changmin goes still.  
  
“What are you doing?” he whispers as Yunho lowers his mouth to his neck.  
  
“It’s supposed to feel really good,” Yunho murmurs. His eyes flicker up to Changmin’s face. “Please Changmin. I want to feel good right now.”  
  
Changmin closes his eyes. Yunho’s lips hover over his throat. He won’t bite him without his permission, but he also probably won’t take it well if he refuses. Caught, Changmin sighs and nods.  
  
Yunho arm snakes around his waist. He pulls Changmin against him and tilts his head to the side, exposing the long line of his neck. Changmin clenches his fingers in his shirt and tenses.  
  
“Don’t take too much,” he whispers.  
  
“I’ll be careful,” Yunho promises, and bites.  
  
His fangs sink through Changmin’s flesh like a knife through hot butter. Changmin cries out just as a burst of fresh blood hits Yunho’s mouth. He moans; it’s his first taste of blood, and it’s the most perfect, exquisite thing he’s ever drunk. He can feel Changmin’s heartbeat quicken and presses him closer against himself, soft, muffled moans spilling from his mouth. Changmin gasps and arches. They stumble backwards and Yunho pushes him down on the bed and hovers over him, suckling greedily on the bite.  
  
Changmin writhes. The initial bite had hurt, but it’s soon followed by a wave of arousal that hits him with the force of a train. Every time Yunho sucks on the bite arousal shudders through him, until Changmin is a panting, moaning mess. He arches up, trying to get some friction, and Yunho grinds down against him. They both groan; it’s the most intense thing Changmin’s ever experienced, more intense than the most mindblowing sex he’s ever had, better than his best blowjob. His fingers clench in Yunho’s hair and he has a sudden understanding of how Yunho could have allowed this to happen to himself, how in a drunk state the only thing he had known was to cry out for more.  
  
Yunho rips his mouth away and Changmin stares up at him, wide-eyed and dazed. There’s blood smeared at the corner of Yunho’s mouth and his lips are glistening and swollen and then they’re on Changmin’s and they’re kissing. The copper tang of blood invades his mouth but he doesn’t care. They claw at each other, frantic and breathless. Yunho rises up on his knees and Changmin straddles him and devours his lips. Their tongues tangle and Changmin pricks his lip on a fang. Yunho sucks on the spot, moaning low in his throat.  
  
Changmin sinks a hand in his hair and guides Yunho’s head back to his neck. Yunho latches onto the still-bleeding bite and sucks and Changmin groans as painful arousal shudders through him. Yunho pulls away much too soon for his liking and he growls.  
  
“More,” Changmin pants.  
  
“I shouldn’t – ” Yunho starts.  
  
“Please,” Changmin groans. He pulls Yunho’s head towards the wound and Yunho helplessly sinks his teeth back into his skin. He can feel Changmin’s heartbeat shuddering and stuttering under his mouth. It scares him, and he pulls away again.  
  
“No,” Changmin whispers. His vision swims.  
  
Moments later he faints in Yunho’s arms.  
  
\- - -  
  
Changmin wakes several hours later with a throbbing headache. He’s tucked into bed and his throat is parched. He groans and sits up.  
  
Yunho appears in the doorway with a glass of orange juice and two aspirins. He watches Changmin take them and drain the juice and only then does he slump forward and bury his face in Changmin’s shoulder. Changmin wraps his arms around him and Yunho exhales a sigh of relief.  
  
“You really scared me for a second there,” he says. “I was so sure I’d gone too far – you should’ve seen me freaking out after you fainted – ”  
  
Changmin chuckles weakly. “It’s okay. It was my fault really. . .”  
  
They lapse into silence. Changmin strokes Yunho’s hair absently and stares off into space. Yunho closes his eyes.  
  
“So. What happened earlier. . .that was pretty inappropriate,” he murmurs. Changmin smiles slightly.  
  
“Do you care?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Good. Me neither.”  
  
Yunho smiles into his shoulder. He raises his head and Changmin meets him halfway. This kiss is slow. Exploratory.  
  
A beginning.  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

It’s strange for Yunho to be out of work. He likes to keep himself busy, and for the first time in many years he finds himself with not much to do. Changmin tries to encourage him to apply to different dance companies, but the bitterness of his last experience still hurts too much for him to move on. A break, Yunho decides, is exactly what he needs. Besides, he doesn’t really mind playing housewife for Changmin. Admittedly he’s not very good at it, but what he lacks in cooking and cleaning skills he makes up in enthusiasm. Changmin has classes to attend and works long hours at the clinic, so it gives Yunho plenty of time to potter around.  
  
His favorite activity, though, is lounging in a patch of sunlight on the windowseat and daydreaming. As far as Yunho’s concerned the best drug that’s been developed in the last 80 years is the one that makes vampires resistant to sunlight. The thought of spending the rest of his days in darkness makes him shudder with horror. It’s one of the many reasons he’d never want to go rogue; their refusal to get inoculated means that they can only come out at night.  
  
His phone beeps with a message from Changmin, drawing him out of his reverie.  
  
「I’m going to be home a bit late – covering a shift at the clinic. Can you make me dinner?」  
  
Yunho glances towards the fridge. 「There’s no food.」  
  
「So get some」He can practically  _hear_  Changmin rolling his eyes.  
  
「Say pretty please」Yunho grins.  
  
「Fuck off」  
  
「So rude Changminnie. I can’t believe I let you kiss me with that mouth」  
  
Changmin is presumably too annoyed with him to reply to that. Yunho tosses his phone aside and watches the sunset with a smile. Some nights Changmin came home too exhausted to do anything but collapse into bed, but other nights he would roll over and press Yunho under him and kiss him into a breathless, trembling mess. He’d always stop short of doing something Yunho would really remember, but those were Yunho’s favorite nights regardless. He wriggles his toes against the plush of the window seat and grins. If Changmin was going to get home tired and grumpy then the least he could do was try to sweeten him with food.  
  
It’s completely dark outside by the time Yunho collects his wallet and keys and heads for the door. He considers grabbing his phone, then thinks  _fuck it_  – it’s a short walk to the grocery store down the road and he’ll be back soon enough. He turns to lock the door behind him, fumbling with the keys.  
  
“Get him,” a voice says.  
  
“What the – ”  
  
Someone grabs his arm and slams him up against the wall. Yunho struggles and kicks out. His foot connects with a plant by the stairs and the clay pot shatters. Yunho rips himself out of his attacker’s grip and whirls to face them. He has the vague impression of dark hair and a wicked smile and jolts with recognition.  
  
“You - !”   
  
Shadows flicker across his vision and all the lights in the hallway go out. Somebody else grabs his other arm and twists it painfully behind his back. They kick his feet out from under him and Yunho falls to his knees with a cry. A strange-smelling cloth is thrust in front of his face and he hisses and tries to twist away but it’s no use.   
  
Within seconds everything goes black.  
  
\- - -  
  
A cacophony of voices surround him. He’s blindfolded and his hands are tied behind his back but he can sense movement from nearby. Yunho comes to on a cold stone floor. He groans and rolls over. There’s a sudden lull in activity, then someone crouches in front of him.  
  
“Search him.”  
  
Rough hands pull his sleeves up and run over his arms. They roll up his pant legs and skim his ankles, and Yunho realises they’re checking him for a tag. He squeezes his eyes shut and prays they don’t think of the nape, fervently grateful that his hair is long enough to cover it. The hands retreat and whoever was checking him stands.  
  
“He’s clean.”  
  
There are only two groups in the city who would be concerned with whether he has a tag or not – the Department and rogues. But the Department would never refer to him being untagged as ‘clean’, so it must be the latter. Just his luck. Yunho rolls to his knees and licks his lips, but before he can say anything a female voice speaks from in front of him.  
  
“So. A human has yet to mark him. Good – that will make this easier.”  
  
Yunho’s throat goes dry.  _Changmin_. He’s going to get home and find Yunho gone and – will he figure out the truth? Yunho desperately hopes so. The female voice gets closer until he can sense her crouching before him.  
  
“You know, when Samchon here told me about the cute little fledgling he made the other day I almost didn’t believe him. He said your blood was the most perfect thing he’d ever tasted. He said he saw strange visions after your turn.”  
  
Yunho shudders and turns his face away.  
  
“What do you want from me?” he asks.  
  
“You’ll find out soon enough, pretty. Take him to the bedchamber.”  
  
Yunho struggles as they force him to his feet. He doesn’t want to go to the bedchamber. The word ‘bedchamber’ has never sounded so ominous before and Yunho is almost certain he doesn’t want to know what they intend to do with him in there.   
  
They untie him, rip the blindfold off and push him into a new room. A decrepit four-poster occupies most of the space inside. There are no windows, and when Yunho tries the door it doesn’t budge. He’s trapped and helpless.  
  
Fear washes through him. Terror makes the room spin.  
  
The world expands and falls away as Yunho shrinks to the floor.  
  
\- - -  
  
It takes Changmin two tries to unlock his door. Their building seems to be having some electrical problems – none of the hallway lights are working, so he has to use his phone as a torch. It’s dark inside his apartment, and he flicks on the lights with a frown.  
  
“Yunho?” he calls. No response. Surely he can’t be asleep already. The bedroom is deserted, as is the rest of the house. Yunho’s phone is lying on the window seat. Changmin puts his hands on his hips and frowns at it.  
  
“Where on earth has he gotten to?” he murmurs.   
  
Another search of the apartment turns up nothing new. The back of his neck prickles with unease. Changmin yanks open his front door and stares out into the darkness of the hallway beyond. The light from his apartment spills out and illuminates the remains of the potted plant that used to stand by the stairs. The clay pot it was in is smashed and soil has spilled onto the floor. There’s a mess of muddy boot prints across it.  
  
Changmin stares at the signs of a struggle just outside his door, then back at Yunho’s phone.   
  
He grabs his jacket and heads back to the clinic.  
  
\- - -  
  
When the tagging system had first been introduced one of its more controversial features had been that it doubled as a GPS device, so that human guardians could keep track of where their supernatural partners were at all times. Many had protested this gross invasion of privacy, so it was decided that the GPS component of the tag would be active for only the first 3 months – half the minimum length of partnership.  
  
It’s only been a month since Changmin tagged Yunho, so he should be easy to trace. Changmin logs in to the clinic’s tracking system and types in his carer ID number. A map appears and zooms in to a blinking green dot: Yunho. He’s in an abandoned warehouse on the other side of the city.  
  
Anger simmers inside Changmin. He’ll eat his own hand if Yunho’s gone there on his own; which means that someone – someone has taken him there against his will. Someone who’s about to be in a world of pain.  
  
Changmin pulls out his phone. He makes a single phone call, which lasts approximately three minutes.   
  
Then he hangs up, locks the clinic behind him and hails a cab.  
  
\- - -   
  
The warehouse is in an abandoned industrial area and appears to be old and falling into disrepair. The place is dark and deserted, and the cab driver looks hesitant about leaving Changmin there. He pays the man and waves him off before heading towards the entrance. It’s jammed from the other side, so Changmin kicks the door until it falls inwards. A cloud of dust follows him in as he crunches his way over discarded debris. He has a vague idea of what to expect – only rogues hang out in places like this – so when a vampire with greasy hair abruptly appears in front of him Changmin jumps only a little. The creature grins at him, fangs flashing wickedly.  
  
“Hello,” he says.   
  
Changmin punches him in the face. The vampire stumbles back, clutching his nose and swearing. Two others appear out of the shadows and grab his arms. Changmin snarls at them as they drag him towards an inner chamber. At least thirty rogues prowl the area. Moonlight spills in from a broken skylight and illuminates what appears to be a pile of rubbish, atop which a female rogue is perched with the air of a queen. She leans forward as the vampires bring Changmin before her.  
  
“And to what do we owe the pleasure of such a tasty morsel walking into our midst?” She purrs. Changmin shakes himself out of the vampires’ grips and lifts his chin.  
  
“You took someone who belongs to me. I’m here to get him back.”  
  
Silence falls. Then the woman – clearly the leader of the coven – rises and kicks a nearby rogue square in the stomach. He drops with a groan.  
  
“Fool! You said he was clean!” She snarls.  
  
“We didn’t find a tag on him,” the fallen vampire rasps.  
  
“Yunho’s tag is on the nape of his neck,” Changmin says. “If you’re going to do something stupid it’s usually advisable to at least do a thorough job of it.”   
  
The rogue leader turns to him. “It was stupid of you to come here alone, human.”  
  
Changmin gives her a small smile. “Who says I’m alone?” he says. “A team of thirty national defense force agents will get here in about – ” he checks his watch. “Ten minutes. And when they do they’re going to arrest or kill every single one of you.”  
  
“Well then, that leaves us ten minutes to kill you first,” she says.   
  
“Do that and you guarantee your own destruction.”  
  
The rogue eyes him up and down. Her eyes narrow.   
  
“Who are you?” she asks.   
  
“I’m Shim Changmin. And my father would revel in the opportunity to see you all rot in jail for the kidnap of a tagged vampire.”  
  
Stunned silence falls. He’s shocked them, though the rogue queen masks her surprise with admirable poise.  
  
“That’s all very well, but that still leaves you here alone and defenseless for the next ten minutes. How many vampires do you think you can survive in that time?”  
  
Their eyes meet. There’s silence for a long moment as they stare each other down. Then the rogue suddenly throws her head back and laughs. She drops down onto her rubbish throne and grins at him.  
  
“I like you, Shim Changmin. You’ve got balls, which is more than I can say for half my coven.” A murmur of dissent goes around the room. She ignores it. “I’ll make you a deal. You can have your precious vampire back – but I want something of his in return. An object of his making, so to speak.”  
  
“Yunho doesn’t make things,” Changmin says. He doesn’t know where this is leading, but if it gets him to Yunho then he’s willing to go with it.  
  
“Oh but he will,” the rogue purrs. “And when he does, we’ll come to collect. Do we have a bargain?”  
  
Changmin narrows his eyes at her. He has a feeling this has something to do with why they kidnapped Yunho in the first place, but there’s no time to figure it out; he needs to find Yunho and get out of here before the vampires call his bluff. The truth is that the call he had made from the clinic hadn’t been to the national defense force, who had far more important things to worry about than one kidnapped vampire; it had been to his parents’ house, and the only thing that was on the way right now was a private black sedan to take him home. Changmin scans the room, mentally noting each escape route before meeting the rogue queen’s eye again.  
  
“Done,” he says. She claps her hands together gleefully.  
  
“Excellent! Show him to the room,” she gestures towards a lackey. He jerks his head at Changmin and Changmin follows him down a dim hallway. They make a right and the vampire unlocks a door at the end of the corridor.  
  
When the supernatural virus had first broken out scientists had taken samples from those infected and done all sorts of tests on them. They had discovered that lycanthropy originated from a mutated gene found in wolves. Likewise, vampirism was the result of a mutated gene found in felines. This genetic predisposition lingered on in its new forms and showed itself when subjects experienced an adrenalin rush, usually in moments of fear or fatigue – meaning that weak or terrified vampires sometimes turned into cats as a sort of defence mechanism.   
  
So by the time Changmin finds him, Yunho – panicking and scared half to death – has transformed into –   
  
“A kitten,” Changmin says flatly. “Not even a full-grown cat. You turned into a kitten.”  
  
Yunho meows sheepishly at him. He’s white and grey and fluffy all over. Changmin supposes it makes sense, since Yunho is basically a kitten in vampire years. He sighs and picks Yunho’s trembling little body up and cradles him in his arms.  
  
“Let’s just get out of here,” he mutters. The rogue lackey eyes him suspiciously as he walks past but Changmin ignores him and keeps his head up. He strides through the warehouse as quickly as he dares, the only indication of his nervousness the tight grip he has on Yunho’s fur.   
  
The black sedan is already out front. Changmin slips into it and slams the door.  
  
“Go,” he says to the driver, and they tear down the road away from the warehouse.   
  


 


	5. Chapter 5

Changmin doesn’t relax until they’re well away from the warehouse. He loosens his grip on Yunho in intervals and pulls out his phone.

“Department of Disease and Pest Control, how can I help you?” A woman’s voice picks up the line.

“I’d like to report a rogue nest,” Changmin says. He gives her the address and a rough estimate of their numbers.

“A team will be dispatched there shortly. Thank you for the tip.”

“No problem.”

Changmin hangs up and glances down at Yunho. His thumb rubs over silken cat ears.

“Now, how do we get you back to normal?” he wonders. Yunho gives an unsure little meow. He squirms out of Changmin’s lap and bounds over to the window. Changmin sits up; a sprawling grey mansion has just come into view. It sits on the crest of a hill surrounded by lavish gardens. Their driver beeps and the gates open to let them through. Yunho looks at the mansion, then turns around and looks at Changmin. Changmin swallows.

“Okay. So. I need to tell you something before we get in there. Something I probably should have told you a lot sooner,” he says. Yunho leaves the window and trots over to nuzzle his head against Changmin’s thigh. Changmin licks his lips.

“My father is President Shim,” he says. “And my mother’s the First Lady. And I’m their firstborn and only son.”

Yunho stares at him. 

President Shim had been in office for the last 15 years and was inarguably the most powerful man in the country. He was famous for taking a dim view of supernaturals and was credited with the establishment of the Department of Disease and Pest Control in order to crack down on rogues. In recent years he had expanded the Department’s authority to include all untagged supernaturals, regardless of whether they were only day-old fledglings. He was vastly unpopular with supernaturals and the liberal crowd, but he ran the country with diligence and iron discipline, so he kept getting re-elected because there was no-one better for the job. Everyone knew the President had a son, but he was notoriously media-shy and rarely appeared at public events.

Changmin is kind of glad Yunho can’t say anything, though the look on his furry little face is surprisingly expressive. He doesn’t look happy.

“Hey, in my defence it was pretty stupid of you not to make the connection as soon as you learnt my full name,” Changmin says.

Yunho covers his face with his paws and gives an embarrassed yowl. 

“You thought it was just a coincidence that I share a last name with the president, didn’t you,” Changmin says. Yunho gives a tiny nod. Changmin bites back a helpless chuckle and picks him up. The car comes to a stop in front of the main entrance and he gets out.

“Thanks Jihun. That’ll be all,” he says to the driver.

“Very good sir,” the man nods. Fangs flash out of the corner of his mouth when he speaks. Changmin watches him drive away, then stares up at the ominous 3-storey façade of his childhood home. He squares his shoulders and knocks on the door.

A young vampire maid opens it and blinks at him in surprise.

“Young master Shim!” she exclaims. “We weren’t expecting you – ”

“It’s fine Jiyul. I’m dropping by unannounced,” Changmin says, striding into the house. She closes the door and flutters after him. “Is my mother home?”

“She’s in the living room on the second floor,” she says. “Sir – ” her eyes drop to the kitten in his arms. Changmin raises an eyebrow. 

“Yes?”

“Is that a vampire?” she asks. Changmin nods and she smiles and reaches out to stroke Yunho’s head. “He’s very pretty.”

Yunho purrs and arches into her touch. Changmin resists snorting.

“Modest, too,” he mutters. Jiyul croons at Yunho for a second longer before remembering her place and straightening with a blush. She starts to apologise but Changmin shakes his head, gives her a small smile and heads towards the second floor. 

Yunho’s kitten eyes grow wider and rounder as they ascend the main staircase. He meows and the sound echoes across the marble tiles and columns. A golden chandelier hangs down from the ceiling, its facets reflecting the light. Yunho twists in his arms, trying to get a better view of the hall, and Changmin scratches him absently.

At the top of the staircase he turns towards a living room just off to the right. A woman is in there. She has long brown hair and is wearing a black bandage dress that wraps flatteringly around her slender figure. Diamonds glitter at her throat and around her fingers. She bears a striking physical resemblance to Changmin.

“Sweetheart!” she rises to greet him. “What a lovely surprise.” 

“Hello mother,” Changmin intones with significantly less enthusiasm and bends to kiss her cheek woodenly. Her eyes flicker to the cat in his arms before she fixes a smile on her face.

“I heard you called for one of the cars. Everything alright?”

Changmin sighs. Of course she already knew; his mother knows everything. People, when they found out who he was, tended to assume he got his brains from his father, but Changmin knows it’s all from his mother.

“Just ran afoul of some rogues. I figured it’d be safer to come back here first.”

Mrs Shim’s eyes widen. “Rogues? Darling you should be careful – ”

“I already reported them to the Department. They’re getting pretty bold lately – since when did they start targeting tagged vampires?” Changmin indicates the kitten in his arms. Mrs Shim, who had been reaching out to pat Yunho, draws back abruptly when she realises what he is.

“Oh,” she wrinkles her nose. “Darling, if you needed domestic help you should have told me. Jiyul asks after you all the time, I’m sure she would’ve been happy to do it.”

Yunho hisses at her.

“Yunho’s not a servant mother,” Changmin says tiredly. “He’s my – friend.”

Mrs Shim gives him an indulgent smile. “You were always so nice to the help.”

Changmin just barely resists rolling his eyes.

“Anyway,” he says. “He got so freaked out he went cat. Any idea how to turn him back?”

“Mrs Parks may know. I’ll ask her to come take a look at him.”

“Thanks,” Changmin gives her a brief smile and starts to leave.

“Changmin,” his mother calls softly. He pauses in the doorway. “Will you stay here tonight?”

He hesitates. “Is father home?”

“Does it matter?”

Changmin turns to face her. “You know I hate being around him.”

His mother’s expression softens with hurt. She looks down and sighs. 

“Yes, he’s home. But I hope you’ll stay regardless. Your sisters are overseas and it gets quite lonely around here and I – ”  _I miss you._

She doesn’t say it, but the words hang unspoken between them. Changmin looks away. Yunho glances between them, then looks up at Changmin and gives a soft meow. Changmin’s arms tighten around him.

“I’ll stay the night,” he says. 

Mrs Shim smiles, a far more genuine smile than the one she had welcomed them with.

“Will you join us for dinner?” she asks sweetly. Changmin groans, but it’s already too late to dodge it now. His stomach rumbles, instantly giving him away. His mother grins.

“You’re an evil woman,” he says over his shoulder as he leaves.

“See you at 8,” she calls after him. Changmin grumbles under his breath the entire way to his room.

\- - -

Changmin’s childhood room is the size of his entire apartment. A massive double bed and no less than four bookcases cover most of the floor space. Yunho jumps out of his arms the moment they enter and runs around exploring the vast space, his tail swishing curiously behind him. 

Changmin sighs and flops back on his immaculately made bed. 

“I hate this,” he murmurs. Yunho claws his away up the duvet and totters over to his side. He jumps onto Changmin’s chest and gazes down at him until they’re nose-to-nose.

“I hate being here,” Changmin tells him.

“Meow?”

“It’s a long, boring story. And I hate talking to you when you can’t talk back so I’m not telling it right now.”

Yunho licks his cheek. His tongue is like sandpaper.

“Gross,” Changmin mumbles, but there’s a smile on his face as Yunho rolls over and nuzzles into his neck, purring like an engine. He closes his eyes and enjoys the sound and warmth of Yunho’s furry little body for a while until a knock on the door interrupts them. Yunho climbs onto his shoulder and drapes himself there as Changmin rises to open it.

A short, elderly woman is standing in the hallway. She’s wearing the uniform of a housekeeper and two sharp little fangs glimmer at the corners of her mouth. Changmin’s face lights up when he sees her and she beams up at him.

“Mrs Parks!” he says, folding her into a hug. 

“Young master Shim,” she says, laughing as he squeezes her. Yunho bats playfully at her bonnet. Changmin pulls away and rolls his eyes.

“How many times have I told you not to address me like that? It sounds ridiculous coming from the woman who practically raised me,” he says. He leads her into his room and closes the door behind them.

“The master would be most displeased if he heard me address you otherwise, Minnie,” she says. 

“Like I give a fuck what he thinks,” Changmin says flippantly. Mrs Parks puts her hands on her hips.

“I’m sure I didn’t teach you that sort of language young man,” she scolds. It sounds kind of hilarious coming from a woman half his height and Changmin grins sheepishly. Her attention turns to Yunho and she leans up to examine him.

“Is this your vampire friend?” she asks. Changmin nods and straightens.

“Yunho, this is Mrs Parks. Mrs Parks, Yunho,” he says. Mrs Parks takes a little white paw and shakes it good-naturedly.

“You know I’ve never been averse to you bringing boys home but this is the first time you’ve brought one that’s not person-shaped,” she says. Mortified, Changmin gapes at her as Yunho gives an amused yowl. She raises an eyebrow at him. “What, did you think you were being discreet when you were sneaking around with the neighbour’s boy or the vice president’s son or the new driver? Downstairs we call a really obvious dalliance a young master Shim.”

Changmin is pretty sure Yunho would have been crying with laughter at this point if he could. Instead he jumps off his shoulder and shows his appreciation by winding himself around Mrs Parks’ ankles and purring as loudly as possible. She laughs and picks him up as Changmin scowls at both of them.

“So what happened?” Mrs Parks asks. Changmin sighs and sits on his bed.

“Some bastard rogues kidnapped Yunho and I had to go all Shim on their asses?”

“That’s odd,” she holds Yunho up and examines him at eye-level. “They don’t usually go for tagged supernaturals; their fight is with the Department, not us.”

“They seemed to think he was. . .significant in some way. I didn’t really have time to ask too many questions.”

“Poor dear,” Mrs Parks tuts. She cradles Yunho against her bosom. “He seems fine, just shaken. He’ll turn back on his own when he’s ready.”

“Can you stay with him for a while? Get him something to eat and drink? I have to go have dinner with the lord and lady.”

Mrs Parks grins. “How’d you get shanghaied into that one?” she asks. Changmin gives her a long-suffering look.

“My mother, how else. 25 years and she’s still got the upper hand.”

“She’s your mother sweetie. She’ll always have the upper hand.” She puts Yunho down and goes to the closet. “You’ll have to change into something more suitable. And go shower, you look a right mess covered in all that sweat and dirt.”

Changmin sighs and rises to obey, but not before pausing to drop a kiss on her cheek.

\- - -

Changmin emerges from his room half an hour later clean, dressed nicely and determined to get through dinner with no unnecessary drama. He’s just going to keep his head down, make polite small talk and eat his food as fast as humanly possible. He is absolutely not going to have an argument with his father.

All his impressive determination goes out the window the moment he walks into the dining room and remembers how much the man annoys him.

His father barely reacts to seeing him, despite the fact that Changmin hasn’t been home in months.

“Oh, Changmin,” he says without looking up from his tablet phone. “I didn’t know you’d be joining us.”

Changmin takes the seat on his left and wishes his mother was in the room. “I ran into a bit of trouble. One of the town cars had to come get me,” he says stiffly.

Mr Shim raises an eyebrow and glances up at him briefly. “What kind of trouble?” 

“Just some rogues.”

Mrs Shim enters through the carved wooden doors. His father looks up at her and removes his glasses. “Your son is fraternizing with rogues now.”

“No phones at the dinner table dear,” his mother says serenely. “And he was not fraternizing with them. They kidnapped his vampire.” She gives Changmin a small smile and he relaxes slightly.

President Shim grunts and puts his phone away. He is a middle-aged man with graying hair, unremarkable in every way except for his stunningly clear blue eyes. Changmin has inherited none of his looks and all of his temper.

“Well, at least he’s finally gotten himself a vampire. Mark of a true man, taming a supernatural,” he says just as the kitchen staff enters with their food.

A searing retort sits on the tip of Changmin’s tongue but he meets his mother’s eye and swallows it instead. She’s managed to maneuver them all into having dinner together for the first time in months and he doesn’t want to ruin it for her.

They’re quiet for a while as the food is served. Changmin grabs his fork and digs in and is glad, for a brief moment, to be home; at least the food here is always amazing. 

“How are your studies going darling?” his mother asks.

“They’re. . .going,” Changmin mumbles.

“Waste of time if you ask me,” Mr Shim says. 

“I didn’t ask you, thanks father.”

“Watch your tongue boy. Your sisters are doing so well for themselves overseas, studying business and law and what have you got to show for yourself? Tinkering away in a lab all day and advocating supernatural rights like they’re equal to us, it’s unseemly.”

Changmin puts down his fork. “They are equal to us and they deserve equal rights. The fact that this rogue problems persists despite all the powers you’ve given the Department is proof of that.”

Mr Shim narrows his eyes at him. “And I’m sure you’ve got a much better idea of how to deal with them,” he says.

“I do, in fact,” Changmin lifts his chin. “Abolish the mandatory tagging system. It’s unnecessary and demeaning; they are right to protest it. Everyone knows a supernatural who’s had their shots is no more dangerous than a human, and if we stopped forcing them to get tagged like animals they would take the shots willingly. Do you think a werewolf enjoys turning furry once a month? That a vampire likes the frenzy of bloodlust? You have the resources to help them and instead all you’ve done is subjugate them.”

Silence follows his little speech. Changmin is breathing hard, his cheeks flushed. His father looks unimpressed; the look on his mother’s face is too complex to interpret.

“Spoken like a true idealist,” Mr Shim shakes his head. “It was just that sort of rubbish thinking that got you thrown out of this house in the first place.”

Changmin seethes. “You didn’t throw me out father. I left.”

He’s had enough. Changmin gets to his feet and goes around the table to press a kiss against his mother’s forehead.

“Goodnight mother. I’ll see you in the morning before I leave.”

“Goodnight dear,” she sighs.

He doesn’t look back as he walks out.

 

  



	6. Chapter 6

Mrs Parks is gone by the time Changmin gets back to his room, but an empty food bowl sits in the middle of the carpet. Yunho is sitting beside it grooming himself, but he pauses and looks up as Changmin flops down on the bed with a groan.  
  
“Meow?”  
  
“Don’t even ask.”  
  
Yunho crawls onto the bed with him and licks his hand until Changmin smiles.  
  
“Come here,” he wraps his arms around Yunho and cuddles him against his chest, Yunho’s purrs vibrating through them both. Changmin tugs the blanket up to cover them as Yunho gives an almighty yawn.  
  
Changmin is asleep in seconds, fully dressed and too tired to care.  
  
\- - -  
  
He wakes to the sound of Yunho hacking up a hairball in the bathroom. The weirdness factor of this doubles when he rolls over and sees that it’s a human-shaped Yunho hacking up a hairball. He spits it into the sink and shudders.  
  
“Well that was disgusting,” Changmin says conversationally. Yunho looks over his shoulder and laughs.  
  
“For you or me.” He gargles a couple of times, then wipes his face and walks back into the room. He’s dragging a bedsheet with him, apparently having transformed back naked. Changmin holds his hand out and Yunho slides back into bed with him.  
  
“Hi,” he smiles. Changmin curls around him, warm and happy and sleepy.  
  
“Welcome back,” he says into Yunho’s neck. Kitten Yunho had been pretty cute, but it was nothing compared to person Yunho. Strong arms wrap around him and Changmin makes a pleased little murmur.  
  
“Thank you for rescuing me,” Yunho says. Changmin pulls back slightly and strokes the side of his face.  
  
“You know the whole way there the only thing I could think about was that the last thing I said to you was to fuck off,” he says. Yunho grins.  
  
“Did you think that maybe I’d done just that when you found me gone?”  
  
Changmin laughs. “I entertained the possibility for a second. But then I saw the broken plant in the hallway, and you hadn’t taken your phone with you – it was too weird.”  
  
Yunho smiles and props his head up on his hand.  
  
“So what did you do?”  
  
Changmin tells him the whole story, from tracking him to the warehouse to tricking the rogue coven into giving Yunho back and then taking the car to the mansion. He doesn’t mention the bargain he made with the rogue queen; there’s no point worrying Yunho over things he can’t change. Yunho glances around the room as he finishes and exhales a sigh.  
  
“Wow. You were so brave Changminnie,” he breathes.  
  
Changmin gives an embarrassed laugh. “I was freaking out on the inside the whole time,” he confesses.  
  
“But you did it anyway,” Yunho smiles and leans closer. “That’s so sexy,” he whispers in his ear.  
  
Changmin turns his head and kisses him and Yunho melts into his arms. They roll over until Changmin is on top and pressing Yunho into the bed as he kisses him fierce and tender. Yunho arches up and opens for him and Changmin dips his tongue into his mouth, drawing muffled little sounds from both of them.  
  
After a while Changmin draws away and trails kisses down his throat and Yunho tilts his head back with a smile.  
  
“So,” he says. “You’re the president’s son.”  
  
Changmin makes a distracted grunt of affirmation.  
  
“You’re the president’s son,” Yunho continues. “And you live in a shitty little one-bedroom apartment on the wrong side of town.”  
  
Changmin pulls back and gives him an unimpressed look.  
  
“Keep talking and you’ll be living in a shitty no-bedroom apartment called the street,” he says. Yunho grins.  
  
“So what happened?” he asks, trailing a hand up Changmin’s arm. Changmin sighs and sits up, straddling him.  
  
“The same old cliché story? My father wanted me to follow him into politics. I wanted to be a scientist and stay as far away from the limelight as possible. We argued and I left. It’s been three years and I have yet to regret my decision.”  
  
Yunho’s expression is a mixture of sympathy and pride.  
  
“Is that why you didn’t want to be my guardian at first? Because you didn’t want to be like your parents?” he asks. Changmin nods. Yunho smiles and sits up to pepper Changmin’s face with kisses.  
  
“You.” Kiss. “Are a truly.” Kiss. “Exceptional person.” Kiss. “How’d you turn out so great when your parents are such bigots?”  
  
Changmin laughs and kisses him back for a second before pulling away. “The servants, mostly. When I was growing up my parents were too busy being important to have much time for me, so I was basically raised by an army of supernatural maids and butlers. Mrs Parks and Jiyul and her brother Jihun, the driver; they’re my family more than my actual family. As a child I didn’t understand why they never aged or why my parents treated them so differently. I understand the former now, but still don’t really get the latter.”  
  
Yunho is watching him with a soft, fond look on his face. It makes heat squirm through Changmin. He kisses Yunho again, mostly as a way to dissipate his embarrassment.  
  
They’re in the midst of a heated makeout session when there’s a knock and the door opens.  
  
“Young master Shim, the mistress sent breakfast for you – oh!” Jiyul freezes in her tracks, her eyes going wide. Changmin and Yunho surface abruptly, Changmin breathing hard, Yunho rumpled and with a dazed smile on his face. Changmin grins lazily and licks his lips.  
  
“Oh. Hey Jiyul.”  
  
“Sir!” Jiyul looks scandalised. Changmin laughs and attempts to flatten his hair.  
  
“Oh come on. Like you’ve never caught me in more compromising positions,” he says. Jiyul’s lips twitch involuntarily.  
  
“I try not to think about it, sir. Especially not about the time I walked in on you with my brother.”  
  
“What!” Yunho yelps.  
  
“She couldn’t look either of us in the eye for a week,” Changmin tells him conspiratorially. Yunho scowls.  
  
“I’m feeling less warmly towards him for aiding in my rescue,” he mutters.  
  
“Don’t worry, it didn’t last long. The young master was too tempestuous for him,” Jiyul says. She meets Changmin’s eye and they exchange an amused look. Yunho’s sure he’s missing something and blinks at them. “My brother is a serious kind of guy,” Jiyul explains, putting down the breakfast tray. “They weren’t very compatible.”  
  
“He was boring in bed,” Changmin says flatly, getting up and taking a grape from the array of breakfast foods his mother has sent. Jiyul hides a giggle behind her hand. Now Yunho feels bad for Jihun, having his sex life dissected so bluntly by his sister and his ex.  
  
Jiyul smiles at him and takes a seat on the divan.  
  
“You’re Yunho, right?” she says. He nods and her smile sweetens. “You’re even prettier as a person.”  
  
Suddenly overcome with uncharacteristic shyness, Yunho blushes and stutters out a thank you.  
  
“Jiyul, stop hitting on my boyfriend,” Changmin says around a mouthful of toast. Yunho starts and glances at him out of the corner of his eyes. Changmin has never referred to him as such, though it’s understood that that’s basically what they are. Neither of them is too fond of labels.  
  
Jiyul grins and bounces to her feet again.  
  
“Don’t forget to visit your mother before you leave,” she says to Changmin, and Yunho marvels at how the external formality between them has disappeared in the privacy of his room. Changmin grumbles and waves her off, and Jiyul leaves with a cheeky wave in Yunho’s direction.  
  
They get dressed in comfortable silence after that. Yunho takes a shower while Changmin finishes off his breakfast. He changes into some of Changmin’s clothes when he gets out; Yunho is slightly shorter and broader so they’re a bit tight about the thighs and shoulders, but otherwise the two of them are pretty much the same size.  
  
“So what do you think your parents would hate more about me?” Yunho asks as he buttons his shirt. “The fact that I’m a man or that I’m a vampire?”  
  
Changmin grins and comes over to fix his collar. “Probably the vampire thing. It’s no secret around here that I prefer men so even though we've never directly discussed it my parents have had time to resign themselves to the fact that I’m basically gayer than a rainbow. Dating a vampire though. . .that’ll really get their knickers in a twist.” He seems supremely unbothered by this prospect.  
  
Yunho smiles and pecks his nose. Sometimes Changmin is so cute he doesn’t know what to do with himself.  
  
They make a detour to the kitchens to say goodbye to Mrs Parks, and she exclaims and fusses over Yunho. She gushes at length over how tall and handsome he is while the other maids giggle behind their hands and shoot him covetous looks. Changmin rolls his eyes and takes Yunho’s hand, lacing their fingers together possessively.  
  
“Okay, okay. We’re leaving now,” he says. Mrs Parks smiles and reaches up to pat his cheek.  
  
“You be good now, okay? And say bye to your father before you leave.”  
  
“Yeah I’m not doing that,” Changmin says.  
  
“He’s not all bad Minnie. And a day may come when you need his help – you’ll regret burning these bridges then,” she says softly. A chill slides down Changmin’s spine at her words. He shrugs it off and shakes his head.  
  
“That’s never going to happen.”  
  
He hugs her goodbye and waves to Jiyul, who’s on the other side of the room. She ignores him and blows Yunho a kiss instead. Changmin changes his wave to an obscene gesture, and Jiyul laughs and waves back at him.  
  
Changmin grows tense as they walk through the mansion until he eventually drops Yunho’s hand altogether. Yunho gives him a sideways glance but doesn’t mention it. The maids told them Mrs Shim was in her study, and by the time they get there Changmin is visibly nervous.  
  
“Relax,” Yunho says in his ear. Changmin takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.  
  
“Come in.”  
  
His mother is writing at her desk when they walk in. She looks up and smiles as she sees Changmin, then her expression becomes frozen as she spots Yunho.  
  
“Mother, this is Yunho,” Changmin says. Yunho bows politely to her and Mrs Shim gives him a frosty smile.  
  
“Charmed, I’m sure,” she murmurs.  
  
There’s an awkward silence. Mrs Shim’s eyes flicker between them.  
  
“So,” Changmin says, starting to edge back towards the door. “We’re just going to go now – ” He grabs Yunho’s arm and ushers him towards the door.  
  
“Changmin. A word?” his mother calls. Changmin sighs.  
  
“I’ll just wait outside,” Yunho says. Changmin nods and watches him go before turning back to his mother.  
  
Yunho starts to close the door behind him but the handle jams. He hesitates, not wanting to make noise and draw attention to himself, and in the interim he can hear Changmin’s mother start to talk.  
  
“That creature. . .what exactly is your relationship with him?”  
  
“His name is Yunho,” Changmin sounds like he’s gritting his teeth. “He’s a person, not a creature. And we’re dating.”  
  
Mrs Shim makes a shocked little sound. “Darling, why must you hurt me this way? Is it because your father refuses to support you? I’ll talk to him, you can have all the money you want – ”  
  
“This isn’t about either of you. And I don’t want your money.”  
  
“Then I don’t understand why you would – ”  
  
“I love him, okay?”  
  
Yunho’s eyes widen at Changmin’s sudden confession. It seems to burst out of him despite himself, like he can’t keep it in any longer. Yunho knows he should stop listening, but he’s rooted to the spot.  
  
“I love him,” Changmin repeats softly. Even he sounds a little surprised by what he’s said. “And there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to change that.”  
  
Silence. He’s apparently rendered his mother speechless. After a few seconds footsteps sound from inside the study and Yunho realises that Changmin is leaving. He darts away just as Changmin opens the door. He pauses in the doorway and glances back.  
  
“Goodbye mother. Please don’t expect me again anytime soon.”  
  
Then he takes Yunho’s hand and leads him out of the manor.  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7

They’re both quiet on the way home. Yunho can’t stop thinking about Changmin’s confession. He rubs a thumb over his knuckles and Changmin’s fingers tighten around his, but he doesn’t glance in Yunho’s direction. He’s staring out the window, lost in thought.  
  
It’s with a sigh of relief that they enter their apartment. It’s been less than 24 hours since Yunho was abducted, but so much has happened in such a short span of time that it feels much longer. He exchanges a wry smile with Changmin and knows he’s thinking the same.  
  
The apartment feels smaller than ever after where they’ve been. Changmin touches the back of the couch, then a lamp. He seems distracted. Yunho watches him and chews on his lower lip.  
  
“I have classes today. . .” Changmin murmurs.  
  
“I heard what you said to your mother,” Yunho blurts out.  
  
Changmin raises an eyebrow and turns slowly to face him. Yunho feels like kicking himself, but it’s too late to take it back now.  
  
“You were eavesdropping on us?” Changmin asks.  
  
Yunho panics. “I-I didn’t mean to! The door jammed and – I heard you talking about me and then I couldn’t not listen and I’m so sorry, please don’t be mad – ”  
  
Changmin places a finger against Yunho’s lips to silence him. “Shh. It’s okay,” he says softly. “I’m not mad.”  
  
Yunho looks down. Changmin’s hands slide down his body and settle on his waist, his head cocked questioningly.  
  
“Is it true?” Yunho whispers. “You love me?”  
  
Changmin curls two fingers under his chin and tilts Yunho’s face up. His gaze is soft and tender.  
  
“Yes,” he says. “I love you. Is that okay?”  
  
“Oh,” Yunho breathes. “ _Of course_. Of course it’s okay. Oh god, Changmin – I didn’t want to say anything in case it sounded too weird but I think I’ve been in love with you since the first time we met. You’re so perfect, not because you don’t have any flaws but because you’re perfect for me and I – ”  
  
Changmin cuts him off by sealing their lips together. Yunho clutches at him and kisses back with everything he’s got. They stumble back; Yunho’s knees hit the couch and he falls on it with Changmin on top of him and kissing him like his life depends on it.  
  
“I love you,” Yunho manages. “I love you Changmin, I love you so much –”  
  
Changmin groans and kisses him harder. His hands rise and stroke the sides of Yunho’s face.  
  
“I’m sorry I’ve been holding back on you,” he says. “I just didn’t know how to let you in. People treat me differently – when they find out – ”  
  
“I know,” Yunho strokes a hand up his back. “I get it now. It’s okay – ” He tugs Changmin’s head down so that their lips meet again. The kiss slows, becomes something deeper, and Yunho can feel Changmin trembling against him with suppressed need. He buries his fingers in Changmin’s hair and arches up, and they both groan as their crotches brush. Changmin pulls away with a gasp and shakes his head.  
  
“Wait, wait – we can’t do this right now – I have to go to class – ”  
  
Yunho mewls in protest and grinds up against him. He doesn’t want to stop, but Changmin in already sliding off him and reaching for his bag. Yunho groans in frustration and flops back against the couch.  
  
“I’ll be back in exactly three hours. And then – ” Changmin leans down and kisses him, quick and fierce. “Then I am going to fuck you until you can’t move anymore.”  
  
A pleased shiver goes through Yunho. He bites his lip and watches Changmin get his things together.  
  
“Or you could fuck me first and then go to class,” he suggests. Changmin pauses, conflict written all over his features, but then he shakes his head.  
  
“I don’t want to rush it,” he says. “If we do it now it’ll have to be quick and I don’t want our first time to be a quickie.”  
  
Yunho sighs and drops his head back against the couch. That’s all very nice and romantic, but the truth is that Changmin’s been holding back on him for weeks now and he’s hard up as fuck.  
  
“I just want you to do me already, how hard is that?” he whines. Changmin’s lips twitch.  
  
“Hold that thought,” he says.  
  
Yunho grumbles and retreats to the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He flops down on the bed and stares up at the ceiling. On the one hand, he can see Changmin’s point. They’ve been leading up to this moment since the first time they kissed and he doesn’t want it to be a bust.  
  
On the other hand, he really  _really_  just wants them to fuck already.  
  
There’s silence from outside the room. Yunho wonders if Changmin’s already left. He can’t believe the man got him all worked up and then just left him hanging. Now he’ll have to take care of himself. . .  
  
Yunho closes his eyes and slides a hand down his body, trying to image it’s Changmin instead. His lips part, a moan lodging itself in the back of his throat as he grinds the heel of his palm against his crotch.  
  
The door bursts open. Yunho jerks upright as Changmin strides in, crawls on top of him and crushes their lips together. He gives a muffled moan and kisses back before pulling away slightly.  
  
“I thought you had to go to class,” Yunho laughs.  
  
“Fuck it,” Changmin growls.  
  
He pushes Yunho down and rips at his shirt. Buttons go flying everywhere and Yunho shrugs it off and flings it aside. They grasp at each other, fingers digging into flesh in their haste. Changmin sinks his teeth into Yunho’s bottom lip and sucks on it while Yunho fumbles with his pants. He lifts his hips up and kicks them off and Changmin grinds down against him, pulling a desperate moan out of Yunho. Changmin draws back and rakes his nails down his chest and Yunho cries out as pain and arousal shoot through him. Changmin slides down his body, tugging off Yunho’s underwear before wrapping his hand around his erection.  
  
“Oh – fuck – ” Yunho throws his head back, the tendons in his neck straining as Changmin strokes him. Arousal rises and drenches him and he hears Changmin chuckle softly.  
  
“I can’t believe I almost left this for  _class_.”  
  
Yunho chokes on a laugh. He writhes, skin on fire as Changmin brings him to the brink of orgasm before pulling away abruptly. Yunho whines and opens his eyes in time to see Changmin roll off the bed and strip out of the rest of his clothes. He licks his lips, gaze travelling over caramel skin, long legs and a broad, chiseled chest before focusing on Changmin’s cock, rock hard and curving towards his stomach. Changmin grins at his appreciative gaze.  
  
“Like what you see?” he asks.  
  
In response Yunho lies back and spreads his legs, eyes hooded with seduction. Lust darkens Changmin’s gaze. He crawls up the bed and over him, the musk of arousal thick in the air between them. They kiss as Changmin’s hands slide down Yunho’s body, over his chest and waist and down to his thighs. Yunho has strong dancers thighs, slim but muscled, and Changmin sinks his nails into the taut flesh until Yunho cries out into his mouth. He draws back and gropes on the bedside table for something – anything – to use as lube and comes away with a bottle of body lotion. Changmin rises up on his knees and squirts some onto his hand before hitching Yunho’s leg over his shoulder and lowering his fingers to his entrance.  
  
Yunho mewls as he sinks one finger into him. He pushes back against him and Changmin adds another. The heat that grips him is intense; he scissors his fingers a couple of times, then impatience wins out. Changmin draws them out and slicks himself up before starting to push into him.  
  
“Ah – ” Yunho arches and opens for him, and Changmin sinks in to the hilt. He hangs there for a second, panting, breathless at how hot and tight he is before pulling out and slamming back in. Yunho yelps and Changmin turns his head and sinks his teeth into the quivering flesh of his inner thigh as he starts a hard pace. Yunho scrabbles at him, nails raking red lines down Changmin’s back. The noises he makes drive Changmin wild; he bends Yunho in half and kisses him, harsh and brief before pulling away, taking hold of his hips and thrusting in hard. The change in angle makes Yunho cry out and arch his back in a perfect bow.  
  
“Oh – right there – ” he moans. Changmin grins and shakes sweaty strands of hair out of his eyes. Every time he thrusts in Yunho gets pushed up the bed and his magnificent chest jiggles. It’s driving Changmin crazy and he bites his lip, trying desperately to stave off his orgasm.  
  
“God you’re stunning,” he pants, reaching down to grope and pinch a nipple. Yunho squirms; his lips part, fangs unsheathing as he mewls and whimpers under Changmin. Changmin slides a hand up his chest, over his neck and towards his mouth. He pricks his thumb on a fang and watches blood bead the tip before sliding it into his mouth.  
  
Yunho’s eyes roll back in his head. He sucks on the wound, muffled, incoherent sounds spilling past his lips. Changmin’s pace slows as he watches him, breathless with lust at the ecstasy on his face. He reaches down to wrap a hand around his cock and Yunho’s legs slip off his shoulders in the interim.  
  
Yunho’s erection is red and straining, and as Changmin closes his hand around it his eyes fly open. He strokes upwards and thumbs the slit and Yunho makes a strangled sound in the back of his throat. He clamps his thighs around Changmin’s waist and flips them. Their foreheads knock together but neither of them cares – Yunho straddles him and sinks down on Changmin’s length with relish, head thrown back, nails digging into his chest.  
  
Changmin can barely breathe. He works his hips up, fucking into him and Yunho grinds down and meets him. They find a rhythm again and Yunho stretches out over him, his lips parted around helpless moans. Changmin leans up and licks into his mouth, careful of the fangs.  
  
“Oh – so close – ” Yunho pants. Changmin slides a hand over his back, feeling the muscles bunch and shift as Yunho rides him.  
  
“I want you to bite me just before you come,” he says. Yunho groans. He reaches a hand between them and jerks himself off as Changmin kisses him, open-mouthed and messy. Orgasm coils tight in the base of his gut.  
  
Yunho makes one last, desperate sound and buries his fangs in Changmin’s neck. They both cry out; sweet, addictive blood spurts into his mouth and Yunho comes between them, sudden and explosive. Changmin gasps as his orgasm is pulled out of him with almost painful force. He arches up and spills inside him as stars burst behind his eyelids.  
  
Yunho sucks on the bite for a second longer before pulling away and kissing him. It’s bloody and filthy and more teeth and tongue than lips. Changmin pants into his mouth, too dazed to even kiss back properly.  
  
Eventually Yunho rolls off him with a groan. He shudders and clenches at the slide of cum down the backs of his thighs.  
  
“Wow,” Changmin breathes. Yunho groans in agreement. Changmin rolls over and spoons him, pressing a kiss against the back of his neck, over the tag. His arm curls around Yunho’s waist, one hand sliding up to cup a pectoral.  
  
“Again?” Changmin whispers in his ear. Yunho bites his lip around a grin.  
  
“Fuck yes,” he turns and pounces on Changmin, who falls back with a laugh.  
  
\- - -  
  
It’s mid-afternoon by the time they manage to drag themselves out of bed.  
  
Sticky and satisfied, Changmin pulls an exhausted Yunho into the shower and takes him again amidst the hot water and steam, Yunho’s hands pressed against the tiles as Changmin shafts into him slow and easy. Yunho’s body is a work of art and Changmin wants to claim every inch of him. Yunho arches back into him, his head falling onto Changmin’s shoulder as he strokes him in time to his thrusts. His lips part and Changmin turns his head and kisses him, licking the cute little mole at the corner of his mouth.  
  
Steam obscures the glass doors of the shower. Water pounds down on them, making everything hot and slippery. Changmin murmurs filthy little endearments into Yunho’s ear and Yunho whimpers in his arms. They come within moments of each other, gasping and shuddering.  
  
They do actually clean up after that. Yunho looks ready to fall asleep where he’s standing so Changmin dries him off and leads him back into the bedroom and wraps him in the blanket. He starts to leave but Yunho reaches out and grabs his hand.  
  
“Where are you going?” he murmurs.  
  
“I need to get some work done – ”  
  
“Don’t go,” Yunho mumbles, half-asleep already. “Stay with me.”  
  
Changmin searches his face. Yunho had taken his abduction so well it hadn’t occurred to him that he might still be shaken up from it. He climbs back into bed and rubs a hand up Yunho’s arm.  
  
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”  
  
Yunho murmurs happily and curls up around him and Changmin strokes his hair until he drops off.  
  
He spends a long time after that just watching Yunho sleep.  



	8. Chapter 8

The thing about Yunho is that he’s tenacious. When he wants something he’ll find some way to get it no matter what. So two months after his old company fires him he picks himself up and goes back to doing auditions, this time as a choreographer, and by the third audition he’s got a job again.  
  
It’s nearing the end of semester and Changmin is increasingly busy but he still finds time to come to the studio and watch him dance and fall a little more in love every time. Yunho moves with a fluidity that he really only otherwise has in the bedroom. Their lovemaking is frequently rough and frenzied and Changmin is glad for Yunho’s supernatural healing abilities, otherwise he’d constantly be covered in bites and scratches.  
  
Yunho loves it when Changmin marks him; he begs him not to hold back, to take him and claim him and Changmin is only too happy to oblige. One time, angry with Yunho for one thing or another, Changmin ties him up and spanks him until Yunho is a whimpering, pleading mess, but it’s the slow, tender way Changmin fucks him afterwards that breaks him.  
  
Sometimes, if Changmin’s had a bad day or Yunho is so tired he can barely move, they take it slow. Those nights are different, driven by pure comfort rather than the urgent need to get off. Yunho loves fucking, and he especially loves fucking Changmin, but nothing can compare to those nights when Changmin takes him into his arms and they forget anything exists beyond the hot press of their bodies moving together. Those nights when they try to crawl into each other’s skin, when every inch of Yunho throbs to the rhythm of Changmin’s heartbeat.  
  
It’s a good time, needless to say. Months pass, and they fall into the comfortable routine of a life together. The end of their six month minimum length of partnership comes and goes without fanfare, though they do go out to a fancy restaurant for dinner and drink a silent, candlelit toast together. Neither of them calls it an anniversary, but they both know that’s exactly what it is.  
  
It’s a morning like any other when Yunho emerges from the bathroom groaning and clutching his stomach.  
  
“That’s the second time I’ve thrown up today,” he says. Changmin is working at his laptop and doesn’t look up. Yunho pouts at his lack of response. His hand rises almost subconsciously and rubs at his chest.  
  
“My chest is so swollen lately,” he mumbles.  
  
That gets Changmin’s attention. His eyes swivel up and focus on Yunho’s chest. It does look a little more. . .generous than usual. Yunho shrugs and wanders into the kitchen.  
  
“Do we have any pickles? I’m really craving some pickles,” he says, opening the fridge. Changmin stares after him.  
  
“Yunho,” he says slowly. “Are you pregnant?”  
  
Yunho laughs. “Right, just because I’m craving pickles I must be – oh, you were serious.”  
  
They eye each other for a few seconds. Yunho’s brow furrows.  
  
“Is that even anatomically possible?” he asks, walking back into the living room. Changmin puts his laptop aside and stares at him.  
  
“I don't know? Can’t some male werewolves get pregnant? Omegas or whatever?”  
  
“I’m not a werewolf,” Yunho says flatly. “And I’ve never heard of a male vampire getting pregnant.”  
  
They stare at each other some more. Yunho feels a third wave of nausea, goes green and clutches his stomach.  
  
“Fuck.”  
  
Changmin shoots to his feet and points at him. “You’re pregnant! You are so so pregnant!”  
  
“No I’m not!”  
  
“How can you be pregnant?!” Changmin’s voice climbs higher.  
  
“Stop yelling at me!”  
  
“You’re the one who’s yelling!” Changmin yells.  
  
There’s a pause. Changmin slides slowly into panic before shaking his head, grabbing his wallet and keys and starting for the door.  
  
“Where are you going?” Yunho demands.  
  
“To get one of those stick things!”  
  
“. . .A pregnancy test?”  
  
“Yes! That!”  
  
The door snaps shut behind him.  
  
\- - -  
  
Yunho stares at the pink double lines of his fourth pregnancy test. The back of the box brightly declares that congratulations, this means you’re pregnant.  
  
“Wow,” he says. “I can’t believe I’m pregnant.”  
  
“Holy fuck. I can’t believe you’re pregnant,” Changmin paces back and forth in front of the sofa, wringing his hands. “How is that even possible? I’m doing a PhD in biochemistry. I should know what’s going on right now. I have no idea what the fuck is going on. I’ve never felt so stupid in my life.”  
  
“First time for everything,” Yunho quips. He seems to be, absurdly enough, almost enjoying Changmin’s little meltdown.  
  
Changmin is still ranting. “I can’t believe I knocked you up. I’ve never had to worry about knocking someone up before. Is this how straight guys feel all the time?” He pauses. “It is mine right?”  
  
Yunho throws the pregnancy test at his head.  
  
“Ow – gross! You peed on that thing!”  
  
“I’ll pee on a lot more if you don’t shut up and calm down,” Yunho says. Changmin rounds on him.  
  
“How am I supposed to calm down? How are  _you_  so calmed down? You’re  _pregnant_  Yunho. This is a big problem, this is – ” Sudden, horrible realisation dawns. Changmin groans and sinks a hand in his own hair. “Shit.  _Shit!_ ”  
  
“What? What is it?”  
  
Changmin chews his lower lip and gives Yunho a sideways glance. “Remember the rogue coven that kidnapped you? I may have promised them I’d give them your child.”  
  
Yunho shoots to his feet. “ _What?_ ”  
  
“I didn’t realise that’s what they meant!”  
  
Yunho looks furious. “How could you possibly promise them something like that?” he snarls. Changmin flinches.  
  
“There was no time to deliberate on it. She said she wanted an object of your making – I had no idea she meant a fucking kid!”  
  
Yunho grabs the front of his shirt and shakes him. “Changmin. I will throw you out the window if you don’t start making sense soon.” Changmin is reminded briefly of an angry lioness before he takes a deep breath and forces himself to be calm.  
  
“Okay, okay. So. There may be a small part of that story I never told you,” he starts. Yunho’s scowl deepens as Changmin tells him of his bargain with the rogue queen. By the end his expression has morphed into horror and he sinks down on the couch and stares at the ground. Changmin sits beside him and takes his hand.  
  
“I’m so sorry Yunho – ” he starts, but Yunho shakes his head.  
  
“It’s okay. You didn’t know. Nobody could have known.” His free hand drifts down to rest over his abdomen. Changmin watches him and chews his lip.  
  
“But they knew,” he says. “Somehow, the coven knew.”  
  
Yunho’s hand tightens in his. “They’re going to know a lot more soon enough,” he says softly. “The vampire who turned me – Samchon – I’m pretty sure he led them to me. There’s some connection there from the turn. He’ll know soon enough that this has happened, and when he does. . .”  
  
 _They’ll come for him._  
  
Neither of them says it, but the words linger in the air between them. Changmin presses his forehead against Yunho’s. He doesn’t know how yet, but he’s not going to let that happen. This is Yunho, and that’s his child inside him. A fierce sense of protectiveness overwhelms him and he swallows. He thumbs Yunho’s knuckles and casts around for some way to lighten the mood.  
  
“So. . .how do you feel about kids?” Changmin ventures.  
  
Yunho gives a small laugh. “Are you kidding? I  _love_  kids. I love kids so much there have actually been times in the past when I wished I could get pregnant just so I could have my own kid.” He pauses and gives Changmin a hesitant look. “How do you feel about kids?”  
  
Changmin puffs out his cheeks on an exhale. “Uh. Well. Less strongly than you, since I’m not the one who’s pregnant through, apparently, sheer force of will.” Yunho punches his shoulder. “I guess I never really thought I’d have any kids? It wasn’t high on my priority list.”  
  
“Oh,” Yunho looks away. Changmin knows his answer has disappointed him and smiles.  
  
“Yunho. Look at me.” Yunho meets his eye and the frailty on his face almost breaks Changmin’s heart. He leans over and kisses him. “I love you,” he says softly. “But I am going to love our baby three times as much as I love you, which is a lot.”  
  
The sweetest, most perfect little smile curves Yunho’s mouth. Their lips meet again, soft and sure, and Changmin’s hand drifts down to curl over the one Yunho has on his stomach.  
  
After a while he pulls away with a sigh and gets to his feet.  
  
“I need to go do some research,” Changmin says. “The coven knew this would happen and I want to know how. I need to figure out what we’re going to do. . .” Yunho’s eyes follow him as he shrugs on a jacket and grabs his things. He points a commanding finger at Yunho. “Stay put,” Changmin says. “You’re safe as long as you’re in the apartment, so unless there’s a fire I don’t want to come back and find out you set even one foot outside.”  
  
He starts to leave, then turns back and presses one last fierce, lingering kiss against Yunho’s lips. Yunho closes his eyes and leans up into it and Changmin’s hands rise to cup his face. He draws back and strokes the soft curves of Yunho’s cheeks.  
  
“I love you,” he whispers. Yunho smiles up at him, pliant and tender.  
  
“I know,” he says softly. “I love you too. Come back soon, okay?”  
  
Changmin leaves more reluctantly this time. He makes sure to lock the door firmly behind him.  
  
\- - -  
  
It’s nightfall by the time Changmin gets home again. He finds Yunho curled up in bed, fast asleep with his mouth hanging open. A small smile touches the corners of Changmin’s lips as he sits down beside him. Yunho has his arms wrapped around himself and Changmin wonders if he fell asleep like that or if he ended up that way subconsciously. He slides a hand up Yunho’s arm and gently shakes him awake.  
  
“Hey,” Changmin whispers as Yunho stirs and blinks sleepily at him.  
  
“Hey,” Yunho mumbles. He sits up. “What took you so long?”  
  
“I got caught up doing some reading. You want to know why the coven kidnapped you in the first place?”  
  
Yunho rubs his eyes and nods. “Hit me.”  
  
“27 years ago a vampire scholar had a vision about you,” Changmin says without preamble. “He published a paper on it, and his description of you in it is startling accurate.”  
  
“Wait,” Yunho says. “I’m 27 years old.”  
  
“Yeah. I checked the dates – he had his vision the day you were born.” They exchange a look before Yunho nods for Changmin to continue. “Apparently he prophesized that you would father a child who would change the fabric of our society forever. Over time the rogues seem to have taken his word for gospel truth. They’ve interpreted it to mean that your child will lead them to triumph in a war against their human oppressors, sort of like a Messiah. Which I guess makes you the Virgin Mary of the vampire world.” Changmin’s lips twitch. “Only not a virgin, obviously.”  
  
It’s a measure of how shocked Yunho is that he doesn’t hit Changmin for that. He chews him bottom lip, brow furrowed.  
  
“So they didn’t actually want me. They wanted. . .” he trails off, growing pale as the reality of what would have happened to him had Changmin not rescued him sinks in. Changmin takes his hand and laces their fingers together.  
  
“Personally I think it’s all a load of bullshit. But the rogues believe it’s true, which is what matters. Samchon must have realised what you were after he turned you and told his coven,” he says. Yunho still looks queasy, and Changmin hesitates to continue. But he needs to say this. He licks his lips.  
  
“There’s one more thing,” he says.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Cross-breeding is illegal in our state.”  
  
Yunho stares at him. As if it wasn’t bad enough that a rogue coven is after them, their half-vampire, half-human progeny can’t even legally exist. His hand tightens in Changmin’s hold. “Since when?” he demands.  
  
“Since last year.” Changmin gives a bitter little smile. “You can thank my father for that one.”  
  
Yunho sighs and looks down. His thumb brushes over Changmin’s knuckles. “We need to leave here, don’t we,” he says softly.  
  
“Yeah. And soon,” Changmin says. He swallows. “But there’s something you need to do before that.”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“You need to turn me.”  
  
“ _What?_ ” Yunho stares at him like he’s lost his mind. “Why the hell would I need to do that?”  
  
“Because the coven will come for you, and when they do I need to be able to fight them off. And the only way I can do that is if I’m one of them. Talking my way out of it won’t work twice – they'll have figured out that I tricked them, and I seriously doubt they’ll be in any mood to negotiate with me again.” Changmin’s jaw is set with determination, but Yunho shakes his head.  
  
“No. No, I won’t do it. We don’t even know if any of the coven survived, didn’t you send the Department after them?”  
  
“And if they were gone before the Department got there? I’m not willing to take that risk, are you?”  
  
“Changmin, listen to what you’re asking me to do,” Yunho says. “You’ll be a  _vampire_. People will look at you like you’re diseased. They’ll treat you like a second-class citizen, like you shouldn’t exist. And your parents – they’ll never accept it. You’ll lose everything. I won’t do it. Don't ask it of me.”  
  
“But I – ”  
  
“ _No,_ ” Yunho just keeps shaking his head, so Changmin cups his cheeks and forces him to still.  
  
“Yunho. Yunho look at me.” Yunho meets his eye reluctantly. Changmin’s gaze is fierce and bright. It’s clear he’s resolved to go through with this regardless of the consequences. “The only thing I care about not losing is you and our unborn child, and if this is the only way I can ensure your safety then my mortality is worth the sacrifice.”  
  
Tears well up in Yunho’s eyes. It makes Changmin falter with surprise; he’s never seen Yunho cry before. They spill over and stain his fingers, and Changmin realises that Yunho is crying for him. All the pain of his transformation, the hurt of being shunned and discriminated against hadn’t broken Yunho, but the thought of the same happening to Changmin had reduced him almost instantly to tears. Changmin grits his teeth and pulls Yunho into his arms and lets him sob quietly into his shoulder. He tilts his head back and blinks rapidly around the hot prickle of tears.  
  
Yunho’s lips come to rest against his throat and Changmin runs a soothing hand through his hair.  
  
“Just do it,” he whispers.  
  
“I don’t know how,” Yunho mumbles. Changmin manages a wobbly smile – he’d researched that too.  
  
“When you bite me you drink my blood, right?” he says. “In order to make the turn I need to drink your blood in return. Sort of like completing a circuit.” He traces a circle on Yunho’s back and feels Yunho tense against him.  
  
“It’s nothing like that,” he whispers.  
  
Silenced, Changmin holds him and waits. His heart rate quickens with fear and anticipation. His neck is soaked with tears before Yunho draws back slightly and parts his lips. His fangs unsheathe, glinting bone white in the light of their bedroom. His eyes are red and swollen.  
  
“I love you,” Yunho rasps. “Forgive me – ”  
  
And bites.

 


	9. Chapter 9

He wakes to darkness and heat. It’s morning and the blinds are drawn, but Changmin still hisses and curls away from the threat of sunlight. His head throbs and his gums ache with the urge to feed.  
  
He rolls to his knees and glances at Yunho lying beside him. He looks pale and drained, and panic closes Changmin’s throat as he reaches down to shake him.  
  
“Yunho,” he rasps. “Yunho wake up.”  
  
Red-rimmed eyes open and look up at him blearily. Changmin remembers the start of the turn, remembers Yunho biting him and then into his own wrist and pressing it against his mouth, remembers suckling eagerly on the sweet, heady nectar of Yunho’s blood. Everything after that is a blur; they both must have passed out. He wonders if Yunho seems so weak now because he took too much of his blood or because he didn’t drink enough of Changmin’s. Either way he doesn’t look good. He starts to sit up before dizziness overwhelms him and he falls back towards the bed. Changmin catches him and presses his wrist against Yunho’s lips.  
  
“Drink. Drink,” he urges. Yunho’s fangs sink into his skin and Changmin closes his eyes with a gasp. His head feels like it’s full of steel wool that’s scratching against the inside of his skull. His neck pulses with pain. The room spins around him and he tilts forward. Yunho rips his mouth away and lowers him carefully to the bed, where Changmin groans and thrashes with pain.  
  
“My bag,” he manages. “In my bag – ” He’d brought the inoculation shots with him from the clinic the moment he realised this was what he’d have to do. Yunho rolls off the bed and hurries to retrieve them. He finds five injections in Changmin’s bag. There’s no tag; Yunho doesn’t pause to dwell on what that’s going to mean for them.  
  
He returns to the bedroom and Changmin drags himself upright and takes the injections from him. His hand trembles as he lowers the first one to his wrist and Yunho reaches over to stop him.  
  
“Let me,” he says quietly. He feels bad that Changmin’s turn is happening so inelegantly, knows that it’s because he’s a young and inexperienced maker. His own turn had been relatively painless aside from the bloodlust.  
  
Changmin nods and slumps against him as Yunho takes hold of his wrist. The bite has already healed, and Changmin hisses softly as Yunho finds a vein and inserts the first needle.  
  
“Sorry,” Yunho says. “I’m sorry – ”  
  
“Don’t apologise,” Changmin breathes. He presses his face into Yunho’s neck. “I’m sorry for putting you through this.”  
  
Yunho presses his lips together and doesn’t say anything. He finishes injecting Changmin and waits for his trembling to subside. After a few long minutes Changmin breathes a sigh of relief. His head clears and the pain in his gums abates. He kisses Yunho’s neck and draws back to look at him.  
  
Their eyes meet and Yunho gasps as a rush of emotion suddenly floods him. Fragments of thought flicker rapidly through his head, followed by the uncomfortable squirm of guilt and fear and he realises with a jolt that  _he’s seeing into Changmin’s mind._  He can sense his emotions, and from the feel of it he’s a mess right now. Yunho reaches out and grabs his shoulders.  
  
“It’s okay,” he says. “I’m okay. You don’t have to feel so guilty about it; I understand why it had to be done – ”  
  
Changmin stares at him. “Yunho,” he says softly. “Can you read my thoughts?”  
  
Yunho shakes his head. “Just snatches of half-thoughts. It’s sort of like – I can sense how you’re feeling? It must have something to do with the turn. . .”  
  
“I suppose that’s how Samchon finds you. . .” Changmin murmurs. They exchange a troubled look, then Changmin sighs and gets to his feet. Yunho watches him stretch, his body adjusting almost visibly to the transformation, and knows it's too late to wonder if they did the right thing.  
  
It takes Changmin almost 48 hours to get his fangs and in that time they make preparations to leave. They try to decide where to go, but other than agreeing that a small town in the countryside would be ideal they don’t manage to get very far. Nowhere seems safe or discreet enough. Yunho hesitantly suggests hiding out in his hometown, but Changmin immediately shoots that idea down – in the event that they’re followed he doesn’t want them to cause trouble for Yunho’s family.  
  
The day after he’s turned Changmin disappears for a few hours and returns behind the wheel of a sleek silver Lexus. Yunho raises an eyebrow when he sees it.  
  
“You have a car?” he asks.  
  
Changmin gives him a smug look. “Yunho. Of course I have a car. It’s just that if I drove a car like this around this particular neighborhood on a regular basis I’d probably get mugged, so I leave it parked in a garage most of the time.”  
  
Yunho mutters under his breath about spoilt rich kids until Changmin laughs and shuts him up with a kiss. They pack their things into the car, but they still have some loose ends to tie up before they can leave – abruptly uprooting two lives is no small feat. Both of them need to apply for time off from work and Changmin needs to call his supervisor about delaying his studies. Yunho jokes about applying for maternity leave until Changmin rolls his eyes at him and tells him to stop stashing cans of pickles in his car.  
  
Later that night Yunho rolls over in bed and mumbles in his ear, “So how come you can afford a Lexus but you can’t afford a better apartment?”  
  
Changmin scowls at him. “What exactly is your problem with my apartment?” he demands.  
  
“The tap in the bathroom leaks,” Yunho grins, sliding a hand up Changmin’s arm. “The kitchen window doesn’t close properly and there's mould starting to grow in the laundry room.” He lowers his head and presses a kiss to Changmin’s throat. “But my biggest problem with this place,” Yunho breathes. “Is how much I’m going to miss it.”  
  
A smile eases across Changmin’s face. He curls a hand in Yunho’s hair as Yunho continues to press butterfly kisses up his neck.  
  
“I had no idea you’d grown so attached to it,” he purrs, arching slightly as Yunho mouths his jaw.  
  
“I have some very fond memories of this apartment,” Yunho says. “This was where we first kissed.” His lips brush across Changmin’s cheek. “Where you first told me you loved me.” He kisses Changmin’s nose. “Where we first made love.” He captures Changmin’s lips and Changmin melts into him. Yunho kisses him deep and breathless, their mouths slanting together in a familiar rhythm. Changmin eventually pulls away panting.  
  
“You big sap,” he says. Yunho grins and nuzzles against his cheek.  
  
“You love it.”  
  
“Yes.” Changmin turns his head to kiss him again. “Yes, I do.”  
  
Two days later he jerks awake in the middle of the night to Yunho shaking him frantically.  
  
“There’s someone outside our door,” Yunho whispers. Changmin nods – he can sense them now that he’s awake. He rolls out of bed, yanks open the bedside table drawer and pulls out two guns, one of which he hands to Yunho. Yunho holds it gingerly and gives him an inquiring look.  
  
“Stole them from the clinic,” Changmin says. “We always keep some on hand since we get so many unstable supernaturals coming in. They’re loaded with photovoltaic bullets so be careful.” Photovoltaic bullets were a recent development designed specifically to kill rogue vampires – they used the sun’s energy to burn them up from the inside. They were expensive and difficult to get a hold of, so it was unlikely the rogues would have any.  
  
They edge out into the living room. Changmin can hear the furtive shuffle of movement from the hallway. It makes the back of his neck prickle.  
  
There’s silence for a while. Then something slams into the door, making them both jump.  
  
“We know you’re in there, Shim Changmin,” a high-pitched voice calls. “We’ve come to collect what you promised us.”  
  
They exchange an uneasy look. Changmin edges his way in front of Yunho and thinks fast. The rogues can’t enter his apartment without permission, but they can’t hide in here forever. They need to get to his car and to do that they’ll have to fight their way through. But the hallway is narrow and they will no doubt be outnumbered, making a fight there difficult for them; their best chance is to draw the coven into a more open space – and that means letting them into his house.  
  
He can feel Yunho at his shoulder and turns his head slightly towards him.  
  
“I’m going to let them in,” Changmin breathes, keeping his voice as soft as possible; vampire hearing picks up every little sound. “I’ll fight them off while you head for the car – they’ll be trying not to hurt you so if I distract enough of them it shouldn’t be too hard for you to get through.”  
  
There's another slam against the door. The rogues are getting impatient. Yunho’s breath hits the back of his neck.  
  
“I’m not leaving you to fight them all alone,” he whispers.  
  
“Do as I say,” Changmin hisses. “Get the car ready and I’ll meet you down there.”  
  
There’s a beat, then Yunho presses his lips against the nape of his neck and Changmin knows it’s acquiescence. He closes his eyes briefly and when he opens them they flash a demonic red.  
  
“Come on then!” he shouts.  
  
The door bursts open. Almost a dozen vampires spill into their living room, the rogue queen striding at their head. She looks a little worse for wear since the last time Changmin saw her – there’s a jagged scar circling her bicep and an eyepatch over one eye. All the rogues are carrying guns.  
  
“Get them,” she says.  
  
Changmin and Yunho shoot down the first two vampires who leap for them and they go down with screams of pain. Flames burst across their skin, but two more step forward immediately to take their place. The rogues move faster than shadows, but Changmin can now match them in speed. He spins and kicks out, ducking under a volley of bullets and noting with relief that they appear to be made of regular lead. He frantically scans the room for Yunho and sees him shoot down a third rogue near the door before turning and dropping another with a roundhouse kick.  
  
“Yunho!” he calls. “Go!”  
  
Yunho glances at him briefly and ducks out the door.  
  
“No!” The rogue queen snarls. “Catch him, catch him!”  
  
Four vampires follow Yunho out. She starts after them with one more, but Changmin shoots down her companion and tackles her from behind. They roll and she kicks out at him as Changmin tries to hold her down. She’s strong and fast but Changmin has the advantage of height on her. He drags her to her feet with an arm around her throat and presses the barrel of his gun against her temple.  
  
“Stop or I’ll shoot,” he snarls. The remaining rogues freeze. The rogue queen gives a breathless laugh.  
  
“Who knew you had it in you, Shim Changmin,” she says. “Reneging on our bargain – I should have expected no less from a liar.”  
  
“Your price proved too high to pay,” Changmin says. “Or did you really think I’d willingly give you my child?”  
  
“The Promised One belongs to no human,” she snarls. “It belongs with us – ”  
  
“I am no longer human,” Changmin breathes. “And the only person Yunho and his child belong to is me.”  
  
He spins her and shoots, and the rogue queen turns to flames with a scream. The edge of the living room carpet catches fire, and flames billow out across the space. Smoke obscures the other rogues from view.  
  
Changmin runs. He’s out in the hallway and down the stairs in seconds, adrenalin and supernatural speed propelling him towards the parking lot. He finds Yunho there, desperately fighting off two rogues. His gun appears to be out of bullets, and he’s ducking and weaving his opponents’ attacks so fast he’s a blur. One of them turns to him as Changmin comes into view and he has a brief impression of greasy black hair before the rogue shoots. Changmin dodges the bullet and kicks out at him, sending his gun flying and the vampire reeling back against a wall. He takes aim, then falters as he recognises the rogue.  
  
“Didn’t I punch you in the face once?” he asks. The rogue wipes blood off the corner of his mouth.  
  
“Yeah. Not the nicest way to greet your darling’s maker,” he says, nodding towards Yunho, who has managed to disarm the remaining rogue and is now fighting him hand-to-hand.  
  
Changmin’s eyes narrow. “You’re Samchon?”  
  
“Who else,” Samchon sneers. “You should thank me – if I hadn’t turned him you’d never have met.”  
  
Changmin draws closer, his eyes flashing red with anger. “You turned him against his will. You had no right – ”  
  
“He wanted it. He begged me for it. He squealed like a pig when I fucked him – ”  
  
Rage blindsides Changmin. He raises his gun and shoots Samchon and watches with relish as he screams and starts to burn. By the time he turns away Yunho has managed to kill the last rogue and is behind the wheel of the car. He skids out of their spot and is heading towards him when pain suddenly shrieks through Changmin’s side.  
  
He cries out and stumbles. Samchon has crawled towards his gun with the last of his strength and shot him, and blood blooms along his right side. Yunho skids to a halt in front of him and he yanks open the door and tumbles into the passenger seat.  
  
“You’re hurt!” Yunho cries.  
  
“Go,” Changmin pants. “Just go.”  
  
He presses a hand against his side and tilts his head back, and as they tear down the street Changmin spares one last look back at the flames licking out of the windows of his apartment.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Yunho wants to pull over the moment they lose sight of his apartment but Changmin barks at him to keep driving until they’ve left the city. By then Changmin has lost so much blood he’s going in and out of consciousness and Yunho stops the car at the side of the road and leans over him. He reclines his seat back all the way, then helps Changmin out of his shirt so he can examine the wound. It isn’t healing because the bullet is still lodged inside.  
  
“I’m going to bite it out of you,” Yunho says. Changmin nods dazedly. “It’ll hurt,” Yunho warns.  
  
“Go on,” Changmin mumbles.  
  
Yunho licks the wound clean first, lapping up the blood crusting Changmin’s skin. He helps him turn onto his side and Changmin whimpers in pain as he licks around the edges of the gash. Yunho kisses his hip in apology. His fangs unsheathe and he finds the spot where the bullet is lodged before sinking them into his side.  
  
Changmin screams. This is no simple feeding – it’s brutal and messy as Yunho literally bites a chunk out of his side, takes the bullet between his teeth and pulls it out. He spits it out the window as Changmin sobs and claws at the seat. He starts to thrash but Yunho holds him down and licks and licks at the wound until the skin knits over and heals. Changmin takes wet, shuddering breathes and trembles under him, his vision swimming, his side aflame with pain.  
  
“Shh,” Yunho kisses his tears away. “Shh, it’s over now. Here – ” He presses his wrist against Changmin’s mouth and Changmin bites eagerly, his eyes closing as he drinks. The blood will help him heal faster but there’s only so much Yunho can give before he has to pull away. Changmin sighs and lies back, small shudders of residual pain running through him now and again. Yunho kisses him and strokes his cheek, and Changmin opens his eyes to gaze up at him drowsily.  
  
“You’re not hurt?” he asks.  
  
“I’m fine,” Yunho says. Changmin turns his head and presses a kiss against his palm. Yunho draws his hand away and replaces it with his lips, kissing Changmin hard and deep before settling back into the driver’s seat.  
  
“Where to?” he asks. Changmin sighs and closes his eyes.  
  
“Just drive,” he mumbles. “We’ll figure it out later.”  
  
It’s midday by the time they have to stop and refuel. They’re well into the countryside by now, and mountains loom not far ahead. Yunho stops at a gas station on the cusp of a valley and gets out to look around. His eyes itch with exhaustion. Changmin is dozing fitfully in his seat, and Yunho knows he needs somewhere proper to rest for a while.  
  
There’s a small motel behind the gas station. Yunho gazes at the vacancy sign and chews his lower lip. It would be easy enough to rent a room for a while, but their problem is that Changmin is an untagged vampire and such establishments generally don't offer board to rogues. It’s ironic that of the two of them Yunho is now the one with all the legal power and Changmin the fugitive – but it’s a sacrifice that Changmin made willingly and for his sake, and Yunho can’t ever forget that. He glances at his sleeping lover, then back at the motel.  
  
Fuck it, it’s worth the risk. Worst come to worst they’ll get kicked out – the Department is generally more scarce this far out in the countryside. Yunho gets back in the car and parks behind the motel before shaking Changmin awake. Changmin stirs and blinks up at him hazily.  
  
“I’m going to get us a room,” Yunho says. “Wait here – I’ll come get you when the coast is clear.”  
  
Changmin nods and watches him leave with dazed but trusting eyes.  
  
There’s a middle-aged man behind the reception counter when Yunho enters. He greets him with a smile, which becomes frozen when Yunho smiles back and reveals a flash of fangs. Yunho ruffles the back of his hair casually, revealing his tag, and the man relaxes again.  
  
“Can’t be too careful these days,” he says apologetically. “Too many rogues roaming around here lately.”  
  
Yunho’s gaze sharpens. “Rogue covens?” he asks, trying to sound casual. The man shakes his head.  
  
“Werewolf packs. You know how they prefer the countryside.” Yunho nods; as a rule vampires tended to congregate in the cities while werewolves were more common in small country towns. “Most of them aren’t too bad to be honest,” the man continues. “They like to keep to themselves and stay out of trouble, but it’s not worth the risk if we get caught harboring them. The Department’s shut down more than one motel around these parts for being too lenient with rogues.”  
  
Yunho’s neck prickles. He feels guilty that he’s planning to put this man’s livelihood in jeopardy, but it’s more important to him that Changmin get some proper rest. He pays for a room and takes the keys with a nod of thanks.  
  
When he gets back to the car Changmin is gone, but a brown kitten with white markings is curled up on the seat in his place. Yunho smiles and picks him up, and Changmin meows and rubs his head against his chest.  
  
“Well that makes this easier,” Yunho says, though it worries him that Changmin is apparently so weak his body has gone cat to conserve energy. He makes a mental note to acquire some blood packets as soon as possible, wraps Changmin in his jacket and heads to their room.  
  
By the next morning Changmin still isn’t back to normal, and Yunho starts to panic a little. He spends an hour stroking him and calling his name, but the most Changmin can manage is to open his eyes and give a feeble meow in response. He needs blood, a lot more blood than the few mouthfuls Yunho could give him without passing out himself. Changmin can’t or won’t move from between the leather folds of his jacket, so Yunho leaves him wrapped up in it, locks the door carefully behind him and gets in the car.  
  
He drives for almost an hour until, finally, a small town comes into view over the top of a hill. It’s the sort of place that would have a population of only a couple of hundred people, and it looks like it would be possible to drive from one end of it to the other in less than 20 minutes. It’s ensconced in the foothills of a mountain with forest surrounding it on three sides and a lake on the fourth. The whole place is incredibly picturesque. Isolated. Discreet.  
  
Yunho knows he’s found what he’s looking for in more ways than one. He cruises down the main street, eyes peeled for some sort of hospital or doctors’ clinic – anywhere that would have blood bags on hand.  
  
Towards the end of the town square there’s a building with a red cross on the door. Yunho parks the car and sneaks in through the back, swift and silent as a ghost. The clinic inside is quiet, with only a few patients and doctors walking around. A thin man and a short woman in a lab coat are having a whispered argument in the hallway, but Yunho doesn’t stop to listen – he slips into what appears to be an empty operating room and locks the door behind him.  
  
“Blood packets, blood packets,” Yunho mutters, searching the room for some sort of storage compartment. There’s a small fridge under the counter and he yanks it open to find it stocked with blood bags. Yunho breathes a sigh of relief, grabs four of them and is closing the fridge just as someone tries the door from the outside.  
  
He’s by the handle in an instant. There’s the jingle of keys, then it opens to admit the short female doctor from the hallway. She walks in and the door swings around, with Yunho frozen and trapped behind it.  
  
“. . .Think this is a really bad idea, what if you get caught?” she’s saying, presumably to the man she was arguing with. She has her hair tied back in a no-nonsense ponytail but dark wisps escape to frame a small and pretty face. Her companion says something in response but Yunho’s not listening, because the doctor has just turned around and spotted him. Her mouth opens in surprise, then snaps shut as Yunho shakes his head frantically, presses a finger to his lips and desperately hopes that his pleading, puppy-dog face is up to scratch. Her eyes drop to the blood bags clutched in his arms and she blinks.  
  
“What is it?” a male voice asks. Yunho tenses. The doctor meets his gaze. Her eyes are soft and kind.  
  
“Nothing,” she says. “I just realised the package is in a different room. Come on.”  
  
She leaves without another glance in his direction, closing the door firmly behind her, and Yunho sags with relief. He waits a few minutes to make sure the coast is clear before slipping back out into the hallway.  
  
There’s a sticky note on the door that reads:  _you could have just asked._  Yunho sighs. He highly doubts the nice doctor would have been so nice if she’d known he wanted the packets for a rogue. He grabs the note, scrunches it in his hand and flees.  
  
Changmin is exactly where he left him, curled up in a furry little ball on the bed. Yunho pours the blood into a bowl and lifts him up, urging him to drink. Changmin laps unenthusiastically for a few seconds until he realises what it is, then he drinks with more vigour. He goes through all four packets, 500 ml each, and Yunho wonders how he fits all that blood inside his tiny kitten body. He strokes Changmin’s head as he drinks, glad to see him finally looking more animated. Changmin stretches and yawns hugely when he’s finished. He licks a paw and runs it over his ears a few times before tottering over to Yunho and rubbing his head against his knee, his purrs filling the room. Yunho laughs with relief and drops a kiss on his nose.  
  
“I’m going to take a shower,” he says as Changmin kneads the bed covers with his claws. Changmin meows in acknowledgement, his tail swishing happily behind him.  
  
Yunho takes his time in the shower, letting the hot water and steam soothe tension out of his muscles. For the first time since they fled the city he relaxes a little, safe in the knowledge that Changmin is going to be okay and that there might actually be a place for them to hide out during his pregnancy. His hand slowly slides down to stroke over his still-flat abdomen.  
  
The truth was that Yunho had been thrilled to find out he was pregnant. He can’t think of anything that would make him happier than having Changmin’s baby, but their ensuing difficulties had sucked all the joy of it out for him. Now he thinks back to that brief moment of bliss when he’d found out, that confusion mixed with happiness mixed with the amusement of watching Changmin freak out, and smiles.  
  
He gets out of the shower, dries off and wraps a towel around his waist. A cloud of steam follows Yunho out as he steps back into the room.  
  
Changmin is sitting on the edge of the bed, human-shaped again and looking perfectly healthy. His only item of clothing is Yunho’s leather jacket; it’s slightly big on him and brushes the tops of his thighs. Yunho’s gaze trails over long, slender legs before focusing on Changmin’s face. Their eyes meet, and all the words they could have said drain out of the air between them, leaving only heat and the slow lick of desire.  
  
Yunho goes to stand between Changmin’s legs and strokes his face with both hands. Changmin tilts his head back and closes his eyes. His eyelashes fan out against his cheeks and his lips part and Yunho can’t resist him. He lowers his head and kisses him and Changmin opens his mouth for him. It’s a deep, wet kiss and Changmin’s hands slide up his waist and back, running greedily over bare skin. He unties the knot of Yunho’s towel and lets it drop to the floor.  
  
They fall back against the bed, silent except for the soft sounds of kissing and the rustle of the bedsheets as their bodies seek each other. Yunho pours all his relief at escaping the coven, his gratitude that Changmin is with him and alive into each kiss and Changmin responds in kind. He shrugs out of the jacket and spoons Yunho from behind, face buried in his neck and one foot stroking up his calves. There’s the fumble and slick of a tube being squeezed, and Yunho doesn’t know where Changmin got lube from but he’s not about to break the silence to ask. Slick fingers press against his hole and push inside, and Yunho arches against him. Changmin doesn’t spend long preparing him, and for that he’s glad. He removes his fingers and sheathes himself with one powerful thrust and Yunho gasps and chokes on a moan.  
  
They stay like that for a few seconds, breathless and still, just savoring the intimacy of being joined before Changmin starts to move. His arms slide around Yunho and pull him more firmly against himself as he shafts into him, his pace steady and deep. Yunho turns his head, his neck straining so they can kiss and Changmin licks into the heat of his mouth and whispers his name, the first word he’s spoken since he turned back. He whispers it over and over again as Yunho writhes and whimpers and shatters in his arms. Heat rises and spirals and Yunho trembles as Changmin’s rhythm becomes faster, more desperate. He reaches down to stroke himself and Changmin’s hand curls over his. They jerk him off together until he arches up with a sudden cry and spills across their fingers. Changmin groans, a soft, dirty little sound, and buries his fangs in Yunho’s neck as he thrusts up one last time, shudders and comes inside him.  
  
Afterwards, when the world has rightened itself and the sweat has started to cool on their bodies, they curl around each other and kiss and kiss until Yunho’s jaw is aching and Changmin’s lips are red and bee-stung. Yunho nibbles playfully on his lower lip and smiles.  
  
“I found a place where we can stay,” he says.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“I stole some blood bags from their town medical center but I’m hoping they’ll overlook that.”  
  
Changmin laughs softly and slides a leg between Yunho’s, twining around him until it’s hard to tell where one of them begins and the other ends.  
  
“We’ll find somewhere else if they don’t. I don’t care where we go as long as you’re with me.”  
  
Yunho kisses him, his chest tight with love, and holds Changmin just a little bit harder.


	11. Chapter 11

“Yunho,” Changmin says slowly. “Are we lost?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“I think we’re lost.”  
  
“Shut up, no we’re not.”  
  
“Don't you tell me to shut up, you’re the reason we’re lost.”  
  
“ _We are not lost._ ”  
  
Yunho hunches over the steering wheel and scowls at the small stretch of road visible in the headlights. He thought he knew which way the town was, but the problem was that he’d first found it during daylight. It’s the middle of the night now and a thick fog has settled over the valley. With no road signs and few street lights to guide them he has the sinking suspicion that Changmin might be right and that they are, indeed, lost.  
  
Changmin sighs and crosses his arms over his chest.  
  
“So where is this magical town if we’re not lost?” he asks.  
  
“It should be just ahead,” Yunho insists.  
  
“We’ve been driving around for three hours. My legs are starting to cramp up.”  
  
“So is your attitude,” Yunho mutters.  
  
“I heard that.”  
  
“Good, you were supposed to.”  
  
“You are so – ” Changmin starts, but Yunho never finds out what he is so because Changmin suddenly cuts himself off and leans forward. “Turn right,” he says.  
  
“I don’t think – ”  
  
“ _Turn right._ ”  
  
Yunho sighs and turns right. They drive in silence for another ten minutes before lights start to twinkle into view just ahead. They’ve reached the outskirts of a small town.  
  
Yunho tries to ignore Changmin’s smug I-told-you-so look.  
  
“Shut up,” he says again, and Changmin flicks his cheek in retaliation.  
  
They drive into the town square, glancing at either side for some sign of a hotel. The roads are pretty deserted at this time of night and they only pass one or two cars on the way. It’s a quiet sort of town, secluded and pretty. Street lights illuminate a park, a school and a police station set amongst other, more residential buildings. Changmin doesn’t say anything, but Yunho knows he’s pleased.  
  
There’s a sign for an inn at a fork in the road. They park the car and get out, and Yunho finds his hand slipping quite naturally into Changmin’s as they walk. There’s no knowing how the owners will react to a rogue walking in, but it’s late and they have no other option so they’re hoping they’ll take pity on them.  
  
They’ve just turned the street corner when a scream shatters the air. They both jump, then dart out of the way as an object smashes through the window of a nearby house and breaks on the pavement. Startled, Changmin starts to pull Yunho behind him, but Yunho steps over curiously and picks the object up.  
  
It’s a photo frame. The picture inside it shows a smiling couple with their arms around each other. Yunho blinks in surprise; he knows the woman in this photo. It’s the doctor from the clinic he stole the blood packets from.  
  
“Let’s get out of here,” Changmin says. Yunho shakes his head. He extracts the photo from its broken frame, then glances up towards the house. That scream had sounded female, and if this was the doctor’s house then he owed her enough to check out what was going on. He walks over and tries the front door. It swings open unexpectedly and Yunho ducks inside.  
  
“Yunho,” Changmin hisses. “What the hell – ” he follows him in. The bottom floor is deserted, but he can hear Yunho’s footsteps pounding up the stairs.  
  
“Yunho!” Changmin calls. “Get back here, are you insane – ”  
  
By the time he gets to the upstairs landing Yunho is standing in the doorway of a bedroom. A woman is curled against the far wall, next to the broken window. She’s crying, hard, shuddering sobs that shake her whole body as she rocks back and forth. She doesn’t appear to have noticed their presence until Yunho crouches in front of her and touches her shoulder. She jerks, her sobs cut off abruptly as she stares up at him.  
  
“Are you okay?” Yunho asks softly.  
  
“Wha – how did you get in here?” she asks.  
  
“Your front door was unlocked.”  
  
She blinks and sits up, wiping her face absently. “Oh, I must have forgotten to – wait. I know you. You’re the vampire who stole those blood packets from my clinic yesterday.”  
  
Yunho grins sheepishly at her. “Guilty.” He holds out the photo. “This man – he was with you at the clinic, wasn’t he?”  
  
Tears well in her eyes again. She nods mutely, one hand pressed against her mouth.  
  
“Did you love him?” Yunho asks softly.  
  
She meets his gaze with red and watery eyes. “Yes. And now he’s dead.”  
  
Silence falls. Changmin leaves his place by the doorway and steps into the room, and her eyes flicker briefly to him; but most of her attention is still on Yunho, who presses the photo into her hand and closes her fingers over it.  
  
“His memory deserves better than being trodden down on the street,” he says quietly.  
  
She gazes at him, then down at the photo. Her brow furrows.  
  
“Why did you steal from me? I would’ve given you as many packets as you wanted if you’d just asked.” This seems to really be bugging her. Yunho laughs and runs a hand through his hair.  
  
“They weren’t for me.” He indicates Changmin. “This is Changmin, my partner. He was injured and I needed the blood for him.”  
  
She continues to look expectant. Yunho knows he hasn’t really answered her question. He exchanges a look with Changmin and they have a swift, silent conversation about whether to tell her he’s a rogue.  
  
“I don’t have a tag,” Changmin says eventually. She looks over at him and he lifts his chin, jaw set in silent challenge.  
  
Her expression clears. She sits up and smiles at them. “Ah. A pertinent precaution, then.” She sees Changmin tense and holds up a placating hand. “Relax, I’m no danger to you. You’ll find that many in this town have a rather lenient attitude to rogues.”  
  
Yunho breathes a sigh of relief, then turns around and beams up at Changmin. “See? I made a good choice.” He glances back at the woman. “I’m Yunho, by the way. What’s your name?”  
  
She glances between them, her expression softening. “I’m Boa.”  
  
Yunho helps her to her feet and she runs a hand through her hair. She’s small but there’s power in her stance as she moves to the bedside table and tucks the photo away in the top drawer, visibly putting her grief aside for the moment. Yunho’s itching to ask her how her lover died, but he’s not sure how appropriate it would be – after all they’ve only just met.  
  
Boa turns to them with a smile. “So what brings you two to my sleepy little town?” she asks as she heads for the door. They follow her downstairs and into the kitchen.  
  
“We’re on the run,” Yunho says frankly. Boa raises an eyebrow.  
  
“Oh? From what?”  
  
“From rogues,” Changmin says. She meets his eye, and her gaze is dark and intelligent.  
  
“You’re a rogue.”  
  
“Only by necessity.”  
  
Her eyes flicker between them. She’s curious, but she can sense that they’ve still got their guard up – even Yunho, whose smile is deceptively open and inviting. Boa indicates that they take a seat at the counter and asks them if they’d like something to drink. Changmin requests tea; Yunho asks for hot chocolate, which makes her smile.  
  
Boa’s kitchen is small and cozy, though strangely uncluttered with personal effects. She tells them her family’s lived here for generations, since before the supernatural virus broke out. She studied medicine in the city but decided to move back home three years ago, though she doesn’t say why. Changmin suspects he and Yunho aren’t the only ones holding back.  
  
Yunho yawns suddenly and hugely and Boa gives him a concerned look. He smiles and waves it off.  
  
“I’m just a little tired, we’ve been driving for like three hours since we left our motel,” he says. Boa’s brow furrows.  
  
“The nearest motel is only an hour away from here,” she says.  
  
“It takes longer in the dark?”  
  
Boa gives him an unimpressed look. “You probably just got lost.”  
  
Changmin decides he likes Boa a lot.  
  
\- - -  
  
Yunho and Boa get along like a house on fire. She likes Changmin too, but it’s Yunho who makes her face soften and her eyes crinkle with laughter. They’re the same age too, so any initial formality between them disappears almost instantly. That first time, after they’ve talked so late into the night that Yunho is almost falling asleep at the counter, Boa lets them go with the promise to meet for lunch the next day. Later they tell her they’re looking for a more permanent place to stay and she says she may have somewhere in mind, but that she’ll get back to them about it.  
  
Boa calls them a few days later and says to come pick her up from the clinic after work. They drive through town until they reach the edge of the forest, where bitumen gives way to an old dirt road. They try to ask her where she’s taking them, but Boa shakes her head and tells Changmin to just keep driving. Yunho jokes that she’s taking them into the woods to kill them, which is hilarious because Boa’s about half their height. She gives Yunho an evil little grin and promises to get him back for that later.  
  
The road diverges into a fork and Boa tells him to go right. Soon a small cottage comes into view, set a little back from the road. They drive up to the entrance gate and get out.  
  
The cottage looks old but sturdy, made of red brick with a brown tiled roof. There’s a messy little garden out the front overgrown with weeds. A low brick wall marks the boundary of the property. It’s a quiet, pretty location, surrounded by thick, lush forest.  
  
“You said you wanted somewhere secluded,” Boa says. They stare at her, then Yunho runs off to explore the place.  
  
“Boa. . .” Changmin breathes. “This is – it’s lovely.”  
  
She smiles. “It belonged to my grandparents but after they passed away it became mine. It’s too far from town for me to live in it but. . .if you’re willing to fix it up you’re welcome to stay for as long as you like.”  
  
Yunho reappears, hair tousled and a smile on his face. “There’s a garden swing out the back!” he announces happily. Boa laughs and leads them in. The cottage opens into a living room and a kitchen off to the right. There are two bedrooms, a bathroom and an old fireplace in one corner of the living room. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust, but Changmin can picture the place after some tender loving care and it’s perfect. Cosy. A home.  
  
He looks at Boa. “I don’t know what to say,” Changmin admits.  
  
Boa smiles and hands them the keys. “Just promise to fill it with lots of love.”  
  
They exchange a glance, then Yunho hugs her so hard he lifts her off the ground and Boa’s laughter rings out across the garden.  
  



	12. Chapter 12

The cottage needs a lot of work before it can be deemed livable, though nothing too major and that they can’t do themselves. Changmin does a thorough survey of the place and makes a list of all the things that need to be repaired, replaced or recycled. Yunho’s technique is more haphazard; he tends to just start on whatever catches his eye first, gets distracted halfway through by something else that needs to be fixed and by the end of the day has a bunch of things half-finished. The day after Boa gives them the keys to the place it rains, and they become intimately aware of all the places where the roof leaks. The next day Yunho unearths a ladder from the shed and clambers onto the roof to replace the broken tiles. Changmin almost has a heart attack when he goes into the backyard and sees him up there.  
  
“Jung Yunho!” he yells. “You get down from there at once!”  
  
“I’m fixing the leaks,” Yunho says brightly. He’s balanced precariously on the center ridge.  
  
“You’re going to fall and break your neck, that’s what you’re doing,” Changmin growls. Yunho waves him off, then wobbles dangerously as he gets to his feet. Changmin thinks he may have a stroke.  
  
“Yunho! For fuck’s sake will you be more careful, you’re  _pregnant_  – ”  
  
Yunho jumps down from the roof, nimble and cat-like, and Changmin immediately grabs him and checks to see if he’s okay.  
  
“I’m fine,” Yunho whines. “You’re not going to be one of those annoying overprotective types for the next nine months are you?”  
  
“I am so going to be one of those annoying overprotective types! You’re too careless, what if you’d fallen? Don't scare me like that – ”  
  
Yunho complains, but there’s a small smile on his face as Changmin berates him.  
  
They insist on paying Boa rent for the cottage. She tries to refuse at first, saying that the cost of fixing up the place should cover it, but when she finds out that Changmin has experience working at a clinic she says that if he comes to work for her she’ll agree to take a small portion of rent out of his salary. They’re understaffed and she needs a new assistant. Changmin asks her how it’s possible for her to hire a rogue but Boa waves it off, saying that if she vouches for him nobody will question it; after all she owns part of the clinic. He accepts the offer gratefully – he wasn’t sure how long their savings could keep supporting them.  
  
Towards the end of his first trimester Yunho switches from craving pickles to constantly craving sweet things. Strawberries seem to be a particular weakness of his; he craves them so often that he ends up planting a strawberry patch in the backyard, which is a relief for Changmin because it means he no longer has to do daily strawberry runs to the town grocery store. Restless with Changmin at work during the day and no neighbours to make friends with Yunho takes up gardening as a hobby. It’s a satisfying process, and the scent of fresh earth is soothing to him – plus it’s a lot less physically draining than dancing, which will soon become too difficult for his expanding frame.  
  
After the repairs on the cottage are complete they fall easily into a routine. Changmin likes the seclusion, despite it being enforced; once Yunho gets into the later stages of his pregnancy they can’t run the risk of someone connected to the rogue coven recognizing him. The chances are slim this far from the city, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Besides, a pregnant male vampire would be a cause for raised eyebrows in even the most liberal town and the less questions asked the better. A vague sense of danger never quite leaves them; at night they can sometimes sense wolves prowling around outside and hear distant howls deep in the forest and are keenly aware that this is werewolf country. Over time Yunho learns how to control their feline transformation and teaches it to Changmin, and on those nights when they can sense wolves prowling particularly close they go cat, climb into a corner of the rafters and sleep curled up around each other.  
  
Boa suggests an outing one afternoon. There’s a hiking trail that runs up the side of the mountain and she knows the perfect spot to watch the sunset from. They decide to make a camping trip of it and just stay the night up there; Boa assures them that she’s done it before and that it’s perfectly safe. Changmin figures it’s now or never; soon any sort of hike will be impossible for Yunho.  
  
Yunho skips ahead of them as they walk up the trail. He’s in his element, running around like an excited puppy, stopping to smell wildflowers and climb up on rocks to get a better view of the mountainside. He has a tendency to be clumsy so Changmin watches him like a hawk, a small smile playing across his lips as his eyes run over him. Yunho’s starting to put on baby weight and it makes him all soft and curvy in ways that frankly drive Changmin crazy with lust. Boa strides along beside him. Her eyes are also fixed on Yunho, and the expression on her face is thoughtful.  
  
“So how far along is he?” she asks eventually.  
  
Changmin almost trips over his own feet. “W-what?”  
  
“Yunho,” Boa says patiently. “How far along is his pregnancy? My guess is about 4 months.”  
  
Changmin gapes at her. They stop walking and face each other. “14 weeks,” he manages. Then, “How – ”  
  
“Changmin, please. I’m a doctor. I’ve been friends with you guys for long enough to notice the changes in him, not to mention the fact that he never drinks when we hang out. How long did you think you could hide it?”  
  
Changmin sighs and adjusts his backpack. “I knew we’d have to tell you eventually,” he mumbles. Boa smiles and they start walking again.  
  
“I have to admit I was a little surprised when I realised. I’ve never heard of a male vampire getting pregnant before.”  
  
“Neither had we.”  
  
They catch up to Yunho, who is flushed and beaming. Boa smiles back at him, then reaches over and pats his stomach. Yunho blinks at her.  
  
“She knows,” Changmin says.  
  
Relief washes over Yunho’s face. “Oh thank god! I’ve been wanting to tell you for ages but of course Changmin had to be all guarded and insist we keep it a secret – ”  
  
Changmin sighs as Boa laughs. All his efforts to protect them and this is the thanks he gets for it. Boa pats his shoulder in sympathy.  
  
“ – Which is ridiculous because we’re going to need your help when the time comes so we’d have had to tell you anyway – ” Yunho continues. He pauses and grows serious. “You will help us when the time comes, right? Because there’s nobody else who we really know or trust around here – ”  
  
Boa presses a finger to his lips. “Of course I’ll help you when the time comes. I’ll make all the arrangements, don’t worry.”  
  
Yunho smiles and squeezes her hand in thanks. They continue up the trail until they come to ridge in the side of the mountain. It juts out over the valley and commands a breathtaking view of the town and surrounding forest. The lake on the far side of town glints golden blue in the light of the setting sun. The sky is turning a soft pink and purple by the time they drop their things and watch the sun set over the mountainside.  
  
“Wow,” Yunho breathes, and Changmin nods in mute agreement. The spot has the signs of habitation, including a stone circle fireplace and a little human debris here and there. It’s clear that other people come up here from time to time, and Changmin can see why – it’s a beautiful lookout point and the perfect place to set up camp. He’s glad Boa brought them here; after the whirlwind of the last few months they need this moment to breathe and regroup.  
  
Night falls in slow increments. They build a fire and roll out their sleeping bags. Changmin had suggested bringing tents but Boa said it would be a clear night and that it would be nice to sleep under the stars, and Yunho had liked the idea so much he refused to hear another word about tents despite Changmin’s misgivings.  
  
In any case Boa is right – it’s a clear, beautiful night, a little chilly but nothing too uncomfortable. Tired from the hike, Yunho sprawls out across his sleeping bag with his head in Changmin’s lap. Changmin smiles and runs a hand through his hair, admiring the glint of firelight off his dark strands.  
  
“So what’s the story?” Boa asks. She’s sitting across from them feeding sticks to the fire. Changmin looks up at her.  
  
“What story?”  
  
“Your story,” she says. “How and why you came here.”  
  
Yunho smiles and closes his eyes. There’s no point trying to avoid it anymore; it’s a talk they’ve been needing to have ever since Boa became part of their lives. “You take this one,” he says.  
  
So Changmin tells her. He tells her everything from the night he met Yunho to the night they fled the city. He only leaves out the bit about their detour to his parents’ house after he rescued Yunho; his background is a whole other discussion that he doesn’t want to get into right now. He tells Boa about the prophecy and she listens with rapt attention, her eyebrows getting higher and higher as he talks.  
  
“I’ve heard of it,” she says suddenly. Changmin blinks. “They call it the Promised One – it’s a famous legend amongst vampires.”  
  
“Yeah – wait, how do you know about it?”  
  
Boa suddenly looks uncomfortable. “I, er, dated a rogue vampire a few years ago. He mentioned it once – but it’s just a myth. Most of them don’t even think it’s true.”  
  
“Well Samchon’s coven believed in it. Maybe they were the evangelists of the vampire world.”  
  
Boa snorts. “Trust Yunho to pick a crazy zealot for a one night stand.”  
  
“Whatever,” Yunho says sleepily. He shifts, trying to get more comfortable in Changmin’s lap, and Changmin reaches behind him and slides a pillow under his head. Yunho smiles and settles down again, drowsy and half-listening to their conversation.  
  
Boa wraps her arms around her knees and stares thoughtfully into the fire. “So your kid is going to be a great warrior, huh,” she murmurs.  
  
“No,” Changmin says flatly. “I’ll die before I let any child of mine become a warmonger.”  
  
“Even if the war was justified?” Boa shoots back. “There’s a limit to pacifism; some things are worth fighting for.”  
  
Changmin raises an eyebrow. “You think the rogue cause is justified? You think what the coven did, what they wanted from us, was right?”  
  
“I’m not defending the coven Changmin,” Boa says quietly. “The coven represents only a small portion of rogues in this country. I’m defending the right of supernaturals to self-governance. I’m defending their right to be treated like people and not animals to be tagged and pushed into low-paying service jobs so that humans can keep lording themselves over those with less power.”  
  
Changmin sighs and brushes a strand of hair off Yunho’s forehead. He’s suddenly very glad he didn’t mention anything about his family – he has the sneaking suspicion Boa is not the type of person who would be a fan of his father’s policies. “I know all that Boa, and I agree with you. Trust me I agree with you. But I just – I don't want to get involved in this war between rogues and the Department. And I especially don’t want my child to be involved in it.”  
  
“But you’re already involved,” Boa says. “You killed the coven that was after you, but there will be others who believe what they believed. You can’t hide forever – and if this is what your child is destined for then it will happen whether you like it or not.”  
  
Silence falls. Changmin hates that she’s right. Yunho is asleep in his lap, his breathing deep and even. Changmin wants to wrap his arms around him and never let go, because maybe then he’ll be able to protect him, protect them.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Boa says after a while. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”  
  
Changmin sighs. “It’s okay. I mean – you’re right. It’s just something I don’t like thinking about. I don’t like feeling powerless, like I can’t even protect my own family.”  
  
Boa’s gaze sharpens. “Changmin, look at me,” she says. Changmin raises his head and reluctantly meets her eye. “I’ve only known you a short time but. . .you’re important to me. Yunho is important to me. You were kind to me in my moment of weakness and I promise I’ll repay that by protecting you in yours.”  
  
It should sound absurd, coming from a 5 foot 3 inch woman whose profession is to heal people, not kick their asses, but there’s nothing absurd about the steely glint in Boa’s eyes. Changmin nods mutely and manages a small smile of gratitude.  
  
A light breeze blows through the trees behind them. A wolf howls in the distance. Boa turns her head towards the sound and Changmin tenses, but she smiles gently at him.  
  
“Don’t worry, they’re too far away to be a threat.”  
  
Yunho shifts and opens his eyes. Changmin had thought he was asleep, but he must have been listening to their conversation. “Do you get many werewolves around here?” he asks.  
  
Boa’s smile never wavers. “A few. They say there’s a rogue pack that runs these parts and that some of the members live in town, but they’re pretty harmless so nobody bothers to check up on the rumors.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes seem to glow yellow in the firelight as he meets Boa’s gaze across the flames. His lips slowly curl up at the corners.  
  
Changmin’s thoughts are still on their discussion. His eyes run over Yunho’s face, and Yunho looks away from Boa and smiles up at him.  
  
“What’s wrong bright eyes?” he asks playfully. He’s heard their conversation but he’s still smiling at him like that, so soft and open, and Changmin thinks  _of the two of us he is by far the braver one._  He leans down and kisses him upside down, his mouth closing over Yunho’s bottom lip.  
  
“Nothing,” he says softly. “Nothing’s wrong.”  
  
Yunho laces their fingers together and leans up to peck his cheek. A comfortable silence falls and they stare up at the night sky. An endless expanse of stars twinkle down on them like diamonds strung on velvet. They start trying to name constellations they recognise; Yunho points out Orion and Changmin finds Cassiopeia. Boa points to a cluster towards the south.  
  
“Lupus,” she says, and smiles. “The wolf.”  
  


 


	13. Chapter 13

When Yunho gets 5 months into his pregnancy Boa asks them to come into the clinic for an ultrasound. She wants to check up on the health of the baby, make sure it’s developing normally and that there are no complications. Considering the unorthodox nature of the pregnancy – mainly that it’s happening inside a man – they both agree that it’s a good idea.  
  
Yunho lies in the doctor’s chair feeling uncomfortable with the cool gel on his stomach, but it all fades away when Boa runs the machine over him and a grainy picture of their baby appears on the screen. Yunho stares and stares, stunned at the evidence of the life growing inside him.  
  
“Wow,” he whispers.  
  
“I hope its head doesn’t stay that disproportionately huge,” Changmin says, but his voice is all soft and breathy and Yunho can tell he’s stunned too.  
  
Boa grins and runs the wand lower over his abdomen.  
  
“So do you want to know the sex of your baby?” she asks. They exchange an excited glance and Yunho nods.  
  
“Desperately,” Changmin says.  
  
Boa smiles and puts the machine aside. “It’s a girl,” she says.  
  
“A girl,” Yunho repeats, his voice soft with wonder.  
  
Changmin says nothing, but that night he rolls over in bed and wraps his arms around Yunho from behind and strokes the growing swell of his stomach.  
  
“A little baby girl,” he mumbles in his ear. Yunho smiles.  
  
“I don’t know anything about little girls,” he admits.  
  
“Me neither, but I suspect we’ll become experts on the matter pretty soon.”  
  
Yunho turns around to face him and Changmin cups his face in his hands and there’s so much tenderness in his gaze it makes Yunho’s throat close up.  
  
“I hope she looks like you,” Changmin says softly.  
  
“I hope she doesn’t get your nose,” Yunho replies cheekily. Changmin sticks his tongue out at him.  
  
“Oh yeah well I hope she’s not as clumsy as you.”  
  
Yunho laughs and pecks his nose. “I’m just kidding. I love your nose.”  
  
“Mmhm,” Changmin doesn’t sound too convinced, but he allows Yunho to kiss him. The angle isn’t comfortable with Yunho’s stomach in the way so they shift around so he’s on his back with Changmin pressed against his side. He props his head up on one hand and traces Yunho’s lips with the other, long fingers resting against the soft curve of his mouth. Their eyes meet, and Yunho smiles as an overwhelming feeling of contentment washes through him. He can sense wariness in the back of Changmin’s mind, worry about how on earth they’ll raise a little girl on their own, but it’s pushed aside by a much stronger feeling of happiness. Yunho purses his lips into a kiss against the pads of Changmin’s fingertips, and Changmin draws them away and replaces them with his lips. The kiss is hot and sweet, and Yunho opens his mouth immediately for Changmin’s tongue. Their mouths glisten when they draw apart and Yunho smiles and licks his lips, a pleased shiver going through him at the intent, hooded look Changmin is giving him.  
  
“You know, I fell in love with you the first time we met,” he says. “But I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you the day we found out I was pregnant and you turned your whole life upside down for me.”  
  
A smile curves Changmin’s mouth. “That’s sweet,” he murmurs. “You’re sweet.”  
  
Their lips meet and Changmin’s hand trails down to rub over the curve of Yunho’s belly while they kiss. It feels nice and Yunho murmurs happily into his mouth. After a while Changmin pulls away and slides down his body, pushing Yunho’s shirt up and pressing wet, open-mouthed kisses all over his baby bump. Yunho watches him with half-lidded eyes, his fingers carding through Changmin’s thick brown hair.  
  
Changmin presses his cheek against his stomach and smiles up at him.  
  
“So what should we name her?” Yunho wonders.  
  
“Leia Skywalker,” Changmin says dreamily.  
  
“. . .Okay well we know who’s not naming her.”  
  
Changmin laughs and sits up, his hair all ruffled and sticking up. It makes him look incredibly young.  
  
“Honestly I have no idea. Let’s decide after she’s born?” he says. Yunho hums in agreement and beckons him over so they can kiss again. Their arms slide around each other and they press closer together, hot breath and soft lips mingling. Yunho tugs on Changmin’s shirt and he draws away just long enough to fling it off before capturing his lips again. There’s no urgency to their movements, no pressing need to get off – just the comfort of holding each other. Yunho lifts his arms and lets Changmin undress him slowly, carefully, as though he’s something precious and delicate. Their legs tangle once they’re both naked, skin on skin, and Yunho moans softly at the feeling of Changmin pressed hard and eager against his side.  
  
“Changmin,” he breathes as Changmin’s lips trail down to kiss his neck. “I want you,” Yunho whispers. “I want you to sleep inside me.”  
  
Changmin groans and lifts his head. His hands run over Yunho’s body, hot and possessive. There’s a purposeful glint in his eye.  
  
“Turn over baby,” he says. Yunho shuffles onto his hands and knees. The position is a little uncomfortable for him now with his expanding stomach so he slides forward, resting his weight on his elbows, and lifts his hips up. Changmin kneels behind him and sweeps a hand down his back, drinking in the glorious sight of Yunho spread out naked and willing under him. He puts both hands on his ass and spreads his cheeks apart and Yunho makes a frantic, embarrassed little sound. Changmin watches his tight little hole clench and unclench in anticipation and smiles.  
  
He lowers his head and licks at his core and Yunho cries out, his hands clenching in the sheets. Changmin burrows his face between his cheeks, licking and kissing until Yunho keens, drowning in the sensation.  
  
“Oh,” he gasps. And then – “ _Oh_ ,” as Changmin flicks his tongue out and pushes it into him, opening him up. It’s too much, too good, and Yunho claws at the bed, gasping for air as Changmin licks and licks at him. His hips stutter and push back against him and Changmin surfaces with a laugh, saliva smeared across his mouth and chin. He smacks Yunho’s ass and Yunho yelps, his face flushed, his teeth digging into his lower lip.  
  
“You like that?” Changmin smirks and smacks him again. Yunho whimpers and squeezes his eyes shut.  
  
“Yes, yes,” he pants. Unable to hold himself up any longer he falls onto his side and Changmin spoons him from behind, nipping at his ear and whispering dirty little endearments to him.  
  
“Gonna fuck you,” he growls, rooting under his pillow for the lube. “Gonna spread your cute little ass open and ram into it over and over – ”  
  
Yunho moans as Changmin lifts his leg and hooks it around his waist, his fingers burrowing between his cheeks and pushing inside. “Please, please,” he whimpers, riding the slender digits inside him with desperate abandon. Changmin pulls out and slicks himself up before pushing into him, the squelch of lube and saliva somehow obscenely loud. Yunho groans and clenches around him and Changmin gasps at the heat that grips him. There’s a fine sheen of sweat on Yunho’s skin making him glow pale and soft in the moonlight. Changmin buries his face in his neck and licks up the taste of his skin and Yunho reaches back and grips his thigh.  
  
“ _Move_ ,” he groans. “Please – ah!” he jolts as Changmin pulls out and slams back into him. His careful control unravels and he starts a hard pace, thrusting into him over and over while Yunho gasps and trembles in his arms. He’d wanted to take this slow, to love Yunho all night long, but he’s just too delicious for a lazy fucking. Yunho has the kind of body that begs to be marked and claimed and the only way to do it justice is by devouring him with lust. Changmin takes a chunk of Yunho’s skin between his teeth and tugs on it and Yunho cries out in mingled pleasure and pain. He doesn’t want to drink from him, just enjoy the taste of his skin between his teeth. Their movements become more frantic, the musk of arousal thick in the air, and Changmin reaches down to stroke Yunho.  
  
“Are you close baby?” he breathes. Yunho shudders in his hold, strands of dark hair matted to his forehead and falling into his eyes.  
  
“Yes,” he gasps. “Oh – Changmin I’m going to – ”  
  
“Come for me sweet thing,” Changmin groans in his ear. “I want to feel you when you come – ”  
  
Yunho gives one last choked moan and spills all over his hand. He shudders and clamps down on Changmin’s length and Changmin hisses at the tight, unbearable heat of him. He manages a few more shallow thrusts before his orgasm crashes through him and he empties inside Yunho with a gasp.  
  
He starts to pull out but Yunho grabs his thigh and stops him.  
  
“Don’t,” he pants. “Stay in me.”  
  
Changmin groans and pulls him closer. There’s a bruise blooming on Yunho’s neck from where he was gnawing on him and he admires the mark, pressing soft little kisses against it.  
  
“Yunho?” he murmurs. Yunho appears to be on the verge of sleep. He turns his head slightly, lashes fluttering.  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“I love you,” Changmin whispers in his ear. Yunho smiles and shifts slightly in his arms.  
  
“I love you too,” he murmurs.  
  
They fall asleep like that, still joined.  
  
\- - -  
  
Now that they know they’re having a girl they start the job of converting the spare room into a nursery and buying all the things that newborns need. Yunho immediately wants to deck the room out in pink, but Changmin says that’s too clichéd and that he doesn’t want to subject his daughter to gender stereotypes from an early age. Yunho calls him an annoying control freak but eventually they agree on buttercup yellow as the theme.  
  
They ask Boa’s permission to paint the nursery and she not only agrees but also comes over to help them. They spend one blissful afternoon painting the room to Changmin’s stringent specifications. Yunho keeps flicking paint at him, supposedly by accident, and Changmin finally cracks and flicks back. This results in an all-out paint war; Boa sides with Yunho and they both gang up together and cover Changmin in droplets of yellow paint until he’s begging for mercy in between helpless laughter. Yunho finds a clean spot on his cheek and kisses him in apology.  
  
“See, now you match the room,” he grins.  
  
“Yes, your daughter will be so confused by whether you’re her father or just part of the wallpaper that Yunho will automatically get all her affection. Very devious,” Boa laughs, dabbing Yunho's nose with her paintbrush. Thunder booms overhead and they all glance up; dark clouds have been rolling in since morning and it looks like the storm is about to make good on its ominous promise.  
  
Yunho’s face suddenly falls. “My strawberry patch!” he cries.  
  
He leaves to cover it with some tarp and a comfortable silence falls as they get back to the task at hand. Changmin glances at Boa – they’d put on some music while they worked and she’s humming under her breath to the song currently playing. There’s a smear of yellow paint on her ear and he smiles and reaches over to rub at it. Boa starts and glances around at him and Changmin drops his hand.  
  
“Boa,” he starts carefully. “Can I ask you something?”  
  
She puts down her brush and turns to face him properly. “Sure.”  
  
“Will you tag me?” Changmin asks. He’s been thinking about this for a while now, weighing up the pros and cons – the truth is he’s been doing surprisingly well despite being a rogue, but so far that’s all been dependent on Boa’s benevolence, and if there’s one thing Changmin hates it’s being dependent on anyone. Admittedly if she tags him they’d be more bonded than ever, but it would only be a brief stint before liberation. And he wouldn’t mind it; not if it’s Boa.  
  
Boa looks away and sighs. “I’m sorry Changmin. I can’t do that.”  
  
“Why not?” Changmin asks.  
  
“I just can’t.”  
  
“Look, I know you don’t like the whole tagging system – trust me I don’t either. The first time Yunho asked me to tag him I said no too, but in the end it was the best decision I ever made. You’ve helped us out a lot already and I’m really grateful for that but if you did this one thing it would take a load off my mind – ”  
  
Boa raises a hand to silence him. “Changmin. I understand that being tagged would make things easier for you.  _I understand._  But I can’t tag you. Please don’t ask me again.”  
  
Changmin’s shoulders slump. He gives Boa a disappointed look; he’d been counting on her saying yes. It’s the first time since he met her that she’s let him down.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Boa says again, quietly. Changmin sighs and scrubs a hand through his hair.  
  
“It’s fine. It was probably asking too much anyway – I didn’t mean to put you on the spot – ”  
  
“That’s okay,” Boa smiles and shrugs off any lingering awkwardness, and by the time Yunho comes back into the room they’ve gone back to painting.  
  
Later that night Changmin tells Yunho about Boa’s refusal to tag him. They’re curled up in front of the fireplace listening to the storm rage outside. Boa had left before it broke and now it’s in full swing; rain lashes the windows and lightning forks down to the ground outside. Yunho sighs and drops his head on Changmin’s shoulder.  
  
“It’s probably for the better,” he murmurs. Changmin frowns.  
  
“How exactly could it be for the better?”  
  
“Well. . .now I won’t have to feel jealous about it, considering how much you like her,” Yunho grins, his eyes on the flames. Changmin stares at him and gives an incredulous laugh.  
  
“Wha – don’t be ridiculous,” he whacks Yunho’s shoulder lightly. “Besides, she likes you more than she likes me.”  
  
Yunho hums low in his throat but doesn’t reply. Changmin finds a blanket and wraps it around them and they press close together, warm in the glow of the firelight.  
  
“She’s still a bit of an enigma, our Boa,” Yunho murmurs eventually.  
  
“I suppose she’ll open up to us eventually,” Changmin yawns. He sprawls out across the rug and rests his cheek against the curve of Yunho’s stomach, and Yunho smiles and cards a hand through his hair.  
  
“Yes,” he says softly. “I suppose she will.”  
  



	14. Chapter 14

Time seems to pass by in a blur. The seasons change, and autumn gives way to a cold winter. When it snows the cottage looks like a frosted gingerbread house, the town and surrounding forest a winter fantasy out of a snowman’s dream. The lake freezes over and the locals set up an ice skating rink on it.  
  
Changmin hates winter; it usually means cold, bitter months that remind him of how lonely he is, but this winter promises to be different. Yunho’s presence changes everything. They spend their first holiday season together, and for the first time since he left the city Changmin misses his family. He’d always gone home for Christmas no matter how rocky his relationship with his parents had been. Back when he and Yunho had started planning to flee the city he had called his mother and told her he was going overseas to continue his studies and said nothing more; Changmin generally lived his life by the rule that the less he involved his parents in it the better. Since then they’ve had only sporadic contact now and then, and every time he’s hung up his mother’s calls as quickly as possible within the realms of politeness.  
  
Now, he picks up the phone and dials their home number. It connects after a few rings and a familiar voice picks up. Changmin’s hand tightens on his phone as he listens to her greeting.  
  
“Mrs Parks?” he says. She makes a surprised sound.  
  
“Minnie!” she sounds thrilled. “How are you dear? It’s been far too long, we all miss you.”  
  
“I’m good. I miss you too. . .”  
  
“And how is Yunho?” she asks kindly. Changmin swallows. He’s often been tempted to tell Mrs Parks the truth, but she lives in his parents’ employ and he doesn’t want to put her in the awkward position of having information that they would feel they had the right to know.  
  
“He’s good too. He says he wants to bake me a cake; I’m afraid he’s going to set the kitchen on fire.”  
  
Mrs Parks laughs and they talk for a little longer before Changmin asks her if his mother is home.  
  
“Hang on, I’ll transfer you to the line in her study,” she says. Changmin waits for her to pick up, gaze flickering past the doorway of their room. He can see Yunho pottering about in the kitchen and for a second he envies him; Yunho’s family, sweet and supportive, are well aware of the situation and have already extracted a promise from them to visit after the baby is born.  
  
“Hello darling,” Mrs Shim’s voice comes on over the line.  
  
“Hi mother,” Changmin says softly. He sits on the bed.  
  
“How are you sweetheart? When can we expect you? I’ve already asked Jiyul to prepare your room.”  
  
Changmin sighs. “I’m well. But. . .I’m not coming home this year.”  
  
“Oh.” Disappointment echoes heavy in her voice. Then – “You’re welcome to bring Yunho too, of course,” she says delicately. Changmin suppresses a snort; his prolonged absence has clearly made her desperate enough to extend an invitation to the boyfriend she so heartily disapproves of.  
  
“That’s not it. It’s just – a timing issue, that’s all.”  
  
“A timing issue,” his mother repeats, her voice carefully neutral.  
  
Changmin runs a hand through his hair. Silence stretches out across the line.  
  
 _I’m a vampire mother._  The words sit on the tip of his tongue.  _Yunho turned me because we found out he’s pregnant and a rogue coven wanted to kidnap him and raise our child as their own. It was the most difficult decision I’ve ever made and I’m scared to tell you because I think you might hate me for it, but I’m also aching to tell you because I want you to know that you’re going to be a grandmother._  
  
“Changmin?” his mother’s voice is soft with inquiry. He knows she can sense that there are things he’s been hiding from her but she doesn’t push him for answers; she’s never pushed him, always preferring to wait for him to come to her. It is both a blessing and a curse – sometimes he wishes she would just come out and ask him what they both know she wants to ask.  
  
“How’s father?” he blurts out instead.  
  
A sigh. “He’s fine. He’s been so busy lately I’ve hardly seen him – some trouble with the Department. You would’ve enjoyed the opportunity to tell him once again that he should dissolve it.”  
  
A smile flickers briefly at the corner of his mouth. “Tell him Merry Christmas from me.”  
  
“Of course.” Her voice grows soft. Pained.  
  
 _I’m a coward,_  Changmin thinks grudgingly. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “Merry Christmas mother.”  
  
“Merry Christmas my darling.”  
  
He hangs up with a heavy heart.  
  
\- - -  
  
A few days after Christmas he’s reading on the couch when Yunho waddles over and sinks down beside him with a groan. He’s eight months along now and getting pretty big. He stretches out across the couch and settles his feet in Changmin’s lap.  
  
“My feet are swollen,” he pouts. “Massage them?”  
  
“Nice try fatty,” Changmin says without looking up from his book.  
  
Yunho kicks him.  
  
“I can’t believe you just called me fat,” he growls. Changmin eyes him over the top of the page.  
  
“You are fat. I swear if your chest gets any bigger you’ll have to start wearing a bra.”  
  
Yunho kicks him again, harder.  
  
“Ow – stop that!”  
  
“Stop being such a dick!”  
  
They glare at each other for a moment before Changmin sighs and puts his book aside. He takes Yunho’s right foot and kneads the arch with his fingers and Yunho lies back with a happy murmur.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Changmin says after a while. “I’m just worried. It’s getting close to your time and you’re going to need a C-section and that’s a major surgery. Boa keeps saying she’ll handle it but I don’t understand how she can do it on her own and there’s nobody else we can trust to know about this – ”  
  
Yunho leans up on an elbow and blinks at him.  
  
“Is that what’s got you all wound up?” he says. Changmin gives him a belligerent look and moves on to the other foot.  
  
“Aren’t you worried?” he asks.  
  
Yunho smiles. He shuffles down the couch until he’s almost in Changmin’s lap and winds his arms around his neck.  
  
“I trust Boa. You should too. If she says she’s got it covered then she’s got it covered.” He presses a kiss to Changmin’s nose and Changmin sighs. He looks down and rubs a hand over Yunho’s belly.  
  
“I do trust her. It’s just – it’s in my nature to worry,” he mumbles.  
  
“And I love that about you,” Yunho says. “But right now you need to relax.” He captures Changmin’s lips, kissing him slow and sweet. He smells like strawberries and cream and Changmin flicks his tongue out to taste him. Yunho moans and presses closer against him. His movements slowly become more insistent, and Changmin pulls back with a laugh.  
  
“Again?” he says. “We did it twice this morning.”  
  
Yunho gives a needy whine and trails feverish kisses up his neck. The pregnancy hormones tend to wreck havoc with his moods and the one he ends up on more often than not is horny. He kisses the curve of Changmin’s ear and nibbles on the lobe and Changmin catches his breath; Yunho had discovered that his ears were a particularly sensitive spot for him and within seconds he has Changmin flushed and eager beneath him.  
  
“Want you,” Yunho moans. He reaches down and fumbles at the zipper of Changmin’s pants. “Want to suck you.”  
  
Changmin groans and lets his head fall back as Yunho carefully shuffles onto his knees. He spreads his legs and slides lower on the couch to make it easier for him as Yunho pulls him out and strokes him to hardness. Changmin bites his lip, brow furrowing as he arches up. Hot breath hits the head of his cock and Yunho sinks his mouth down on him. Changmin gasps and reaches down to wind his fingers in Yunho’s hair.  
  
“Careful,” he breathes; Yunho’s fangs have a habit of unsheathing when he’s excited. Yunho hums around him and Changmin groans as the vibration sends shockwaves of pleasure through him. Yunho sucks on him eagerly, his hand stroking what he can’t fit in his mouth, and Changmin throws his head back with a gasp.  
  
“Ah – fuck, you’re so good at that – ”  
  
Yunho comes up for air, his tongue flicking out cat-like to gather the precum beading the tip of Changmin’s cock. His fingers tighten around the base. “Don’t come,” he orders. Changmin growls and thrashes under him.  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“You have to fuck me first,” Yunho says, and goes back to sucking him with renewed vigor. Changmin grits his teeth, his fingers clenching in silky hair. Yunho is going to be the death of him, the minx. The need to thrust lodges in his gut but Yunho holds him down, making enthusiastic little sounds around Changmin’s length and licking and sucking him until Changmin is sure he’s going to lose his mind. Yunho sinks lower on his length, takes him down his throat and swallows and Changmin cries out. He yanks Yunho’s head back and pulls him to his feet.  
  
“Bed. Now,” Changmin growls. They stumble to the bedroom, lips devouring each other the whole way, a trail of discarded clothes following them.  
  
“On your back,” Changmin says, and Yunho scrambles to obey. Pregnancy sex is pretty awesome for him because he’s so sensitive lately each touch and scent and caress feels heightened. On the other hand, Changmin refuses to be rough with him for fear of hurting the baby so they’ve been having lots of slow, drawn-out sex that, while satisfying, is driving Yunho a little insane. He draws his knees up and holds himself open as Changmin grabs the lube, slicks two fingers and sinks them in him. Yunho grunts and pushes back against him.  
  
“Hurry, hurry – just get in me – ” he groans. Changmin laughs and slowly draws his fingers out.  
  
“God you’re impatient lately,” he says. He grabs a pillow and slides it under the small of Yunho’s back, then reaches up and squeezes Yunho’s chest, kneading the swollen flesh with both hands. Yunho mewls and squirms under him.  
  
“Fuck me Changmin, fuck me hard,” he pants. Changmin hitches a leg over his shoulder and pushes into him carefully and Yunho makes a strangled sound and throws his head back. It feels  _so good_  to be filled like this, so complete and perfect. Changmin thrusts slowly into him, one hand fluttering over the curve of Yunho’s belly, his expression fierce with love.  
  
“Faster,” Yunho groans, writhing under him. Changmin picks up the pace a little and Yunho yelps and claws at the sheets. It’s too much and not enough all at the same time, and he thrashes his head as Changmin reaches down with his free hand to stroke him. Lust renders him incoherent. Yunho can only manage needy little whimpers as Changmin fucks him, his pace steady and not nearly as hard and rough as Yunho wants it to be.  
  
“Changmi – for fuck’s – harder –” Yunho gasps, neck straining, his eyes squeezed shut.  
  
“Shh. . .” Changmin runs reverent fingers over his length, his gaze hot and bright. Having Yunho spread out beneath him flushed and panting, his heat clenched tight around him, takes his breath away every time. He wants to savour this moment, wants to lock it away in his memory and hoard it forever.  
  
Yunho opens his eyes and pants up at him. He meets Changmin’s gaze and suddenly he’s inside his mind, and the jumble of thought and emotion that runs through him almost shakes Yunho apart. He gasps, caught and held in a web of Changmin’s love, overwhelmed by the fierce possessiveness he’s projecting, and in the chaos of his mind Yunho finds one strong thread of feeling repeated over and over and clings to it.  
  
 _Mine._  
  
Yunho closes his eyes and gives himself over. The tension of urgency leaves him and his body grows pliant and yielding. Changmin senses the change in him and speeds up his pace accordingly. His eyes flash red, and seconds later his fangs unsheathe.  
  
“Say it,” he hisses. Yunho whimpers as he punctuates the order with a particularly hard thrust.  
  
“Yours,” he pants. Changmin’s hands sweep protectively over the swollen curve of his stomach. “Yours. I’m yours.”  
  
Changmin turns his head and sinks his teeth into his thigh, and Yunho screams and arches up and comes.

 


	15. Chapter 15

Three weeks later Yunho jerks awake in the middle of the night to a searing pain in his side. He sits up and gasps as a contraction shudders through him. He reaches over and shakes Changmin.  
  
“Changmin. Wake up,” Yunho says urgently.  
  
Changmin groans and rolls over. “Don’t wanna,” he mumbles.  
  
Yunho kicks him out of bed.  
  
Changmin lands on his ass and stumbles upright as Yunho suddenly cries out and hunches over in pain. “Oh god is it time? It’s happening isn’t it?” he says frantically.  
  
“Call Boa,” Yunho says through gritted teeth. Changmin fumbles for his phone and dials her number as they head for the door. She picks up after several rings.  
  
“Hello?” her voice is raspy with sleep.  
  
“Boa! You need to get down to the clinic right now – it’s happening – Yunho’s in labour – ”  
  
Some combination of the words ‘Yunho’ and ‘labour’ must have filtered through Boa’s sleepy haze and jolted her awake, because she sounds a lot more coherent the next time she speaks.  
  
“I’ll meet you there,” she says, and hangs up before Changmin can even reply. He shoves his phone in his pocket and helps Yunho into the car and then they’re tearing down the driveway and into town. Yunho groans and presses his hands over his stomach as another contraction seizes him.  
  
“Okay?” Changmin asks.  
  
“Hurts,” Yunho whimpers.  
  
Changmin grits his teeth and drives faster. They make it to the clinic in record time. The lights are on inside and there appear to be a couple of people moving around. Boa meets them out front with a wheelchair and they help Yunho into it before taking him inside. Her hair is disheveled and she has her scrubs on back to front, but there’s calm purpose in her gaze.  
  
Changmin doesn’t recognise any of the people in the clinic. They prepare an operating room and wheel Yunho in and Changmin tries to get out of the way as three men and two women prep for surgery.  
  
“Boa,” he asks nervously. “Who are all these people?”  
  
Boa doesn’t answer him – she’s too busy telling Yunho to take deep breaths and fixing an oxygen mask over his face. Changmin starts to go to his side but Boa shakes her head and ushers him towards the door.  
  
“No family members in the operating room,” she says, and closes the door in his face.  
  
Changmin paces outside, his head spinning with questions and worries. The minutes crawl by. With the door of the operating room closed everything is eerily silent. Changmin tries not to psyche himself out, tries not to think of all the things that could go wrong; Yunho and his daughter’s lives are in Boa’s hands now and all he can do is trust her.  
  
He sinks into a chair and holds his head in his hands. He thinks he’s too anxious to sleep, but eventually his eyes droop and Changmin dozes for a while. Hours pass.  
  
He wakes abruptly to the sound of baby’s cry. Changmin jumps to his feet, his heart thumping double time. Several minutes pass, then the door opens to admit Boa. She looks tired but there’s a smile on her face and a small white bundle in her arms.  
  
“Congratulations,” she says quietly. “You’re a father.”  
  
Changmin stops breathing. He reaches out and takes the bundle from her and stares down at the wrinkled, perfect little face of his baby girl. His throat closes over.  
  
“Wow,” he manages, then swallows and looks up. “Yunho?”  
  
“He’s fine,” Boa says. “They’re just patching him up now. He should be awake soon.”  
  
Changmin nods, then looks down again as the bundle in his arms squirms. His daughter whimpers, seemingly on the verge of crying, then settles as he rocks her and murmurs soothingly. Her face scrunches up, then slowly she opens her eyes and blinks up at him.  
  
Changmin gazes back and feels his breath catch. She has his eyes.  
  
His world tilts and rearranges itself around her. Changmin lowers his head and presses a kiss to her tiny face.  
  
He sinks into a chair and Boa sits beside him and coos at the baby. Changmin stares at her, his mind spinning with questions.  
  
“Boa,” he says. “Who were those people in the operating room with you?”  
  
Boa sighs and stops stroking his daughter’s cheek. She looks down, hands folded in her lap.  
  
“Members of my pack. They work the night shift at the hospital in a neighboring town,” she says quietly.  
  
Changmin stares at her, uncomprehending.  
  
“You – ” he starts, then falters. “You’re – ”  
  
Boa’s nails darken and lengthen into claws. Two silver ears appear at the top of her head, and when she looks up to meet his gaze her eyes are wolf yellow.  
  
“Funny thing about werewolves,” she says. “We don’t have any distinctive physical features like your fangs to immediately identify us, so really the only way to tell if someone’s a human or a rogue wolf is to catch us during a transformation.”  
  
“You’re part of a rogue pack,” Changmin says numbly. Boa smiles.  
  
“We’re not all like those crazies you get in the cities. Most of us just want to be left alone.”  
  
Changmin can’t process it. He’s known Boa for months, how could he not have guessed this? Looking back on it there may have been clues, but he’s too overwhelmed to pick them out just now.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell us?” he breathes. Boa shrugs and the claws and ears disappear.  
  
“Rogue packs lead dangerous lives. I didn’t want to get you involved.”  
  
Something clicks in Changmin’s head. “Those wolves we would sometimes hear prowling near the cottage at night – ”  
  
“I sent them to watch over you whenever we knew Department cars were patrolling these parts. Wolves make effective decoys.”  
  
“You can make them do that?”  
  
“An alpha may command her pack anything,” Boa says quietly. Changmin stares at her. An alpha. Boa is not just a werewolf; she’s an alpha wolf, the leader of her pack. If he’s honest with himself it’s not surprisingly in the least – he would expect no less from her.  
  
Changmin releases a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. He shakes his head, floored by Boa’s revelation. It suddenly makes perfect sense why she had refused to tag him, why she had taken Yunho being pregnant so quickly into stride and assured them so readily that she would handle the birth – male wolves getting pregnant was rare but not unheard of. Part of Changmin can’t believe he hadn’t already guessed the truth.  
  
The operating room door opens. One of the men – a werewolf, Changmin realises with a jolt – comes out.  
  
“He’s awake,” he says, and they rise and follow him into the room.  
  
Yunho is sitting up in bed, doped up on morphine but coherent enough to smile and reach his arms out as soon as they come into view. Changmin transfers their baby to him and Yunho holds her and looks down at her sleeping face and smiles and smiles.  
  
“Oh,” he breathes. “She’s perfect.”  
  
Changmin’s heart is so full he doesn’t know what to do with himself. “She looks like you,” he says quietly.  
  
Yunho grins up at him. “Considering the fact that her face is mostly just red and wrinkled right now I wouldn’t really take that as a compliment.”  
  
Changmin whacks his shoulder. Yunho laughs softly, then glances past him at Boa. He looks back at Changmin and silent understanding passes between them.  
  
“Boa,” Yunho reaches his hand out and she takes it. He presses a kiss to her palm. “Thank you.”  
  
She smiles and cups his cheek. “Don’t mention it.”  
  
“Can we ask one last favour of you?” Changmin says.  
  
“Anything.”  
  
“Will you be our daughter’s godmother?”  
  
Boa’s lips part. She looks equal parts stunned and elated.  
  
“Yes,” she breathes. “Yes, of course I will.”  
  
Changmin hugs her and she clutches back at him with one hand, her other reaching over to lace with Yunho’s.  
  
\- - -  
  
Caring for a newborn is no small feat. They were expecting it to be difficult, but Changmin doesn’t realise how unprepared they are until they bring their daughter home for the first time and she wakes up crying approximately fifteen times during the night. Boa comes around every day to help out and for that they are both eternally grateful – they’d be completely lost without her. Surprisingly, when they tell Yunho about Boa being a werewolf he merely shrugs.  
  
“I know,” he says. They both stare at him and he gives Boa a small smile. “I suspected it for a while but I was sure of it after you said you couldn’t tag Changmin. I grew up around werewolves remember; I know the signs when I see them. You’re never around on the night of the full moon and I’ve never seen you touch something with silver in it. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together.”  
  
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Changmin splutters. It occurs to him that he may have let his own presumptions blind him; Changmin had been brought up to believe that rogues were a menace, outcasts who refused to assimilate with normal society, and nothing he had experienced since then had changed that opinion. He hadn’t even thought that someone as successful and well-liked as Boa could be anything but human. But Yunho – sweet, forgiving Yunho, unencumbered by the prejudices of city folk – had seen through her shields right away.  
  
“I figured she’d tell us on her own when she was ready. It’s not my fault you’re so thick,” Yunho says, and Boa gives a bark of laughter. He ignores Changmin’s grumbling and lifts their daughter out of her cot and coos at her as she opens her eyes and blinks up at him.  
  
They decide to name her Sora, Sora for the sky and the pretty seashells on the beach. It’s Yunho’s idea and Changmin instantly loves it. It’s a name with a sense of freedom. A summer name.  
  
Changmin finds that he loves a lot of things lately; there’s something about the thrill of first-time fatherhood that has him in a happy daze for the first few weeks. They’d prepared the other room for Sora, but most nights Changmin just ends up sneaking her into their bed so he can sleep with his arm around her and his nose buried in her neck, lulled by the scent of milk and baby powder. Everything about her is just so small and perfect; he spends hours playing with her tiny hands and feet, cooing whenever she grabs his finger. The first time she laughs and babbles back at him he smiles about it for the rest of the day.  
  
Yunho calls him crazy but the truth is he’s no better. He’s up with Sora more nights than Changmin. Sometimes he dozes off in the rocking chair beside her cot and Changmin has to go looking for him and lead him back to bed. Their happy daze is also partly a sleep-deprived dazed, but luckily vampires don’t tire too quickly so it’s nothing they can’t handle. Changmin wonders when Sora’s vampire side will become more apparent – so far she seems to have all the characteristics of a human baby. Maybe once she starts teething she’ll grow some baby fangs, a prospect that is both worrying and sort of adorable.  
  
But the problem with having a newborn – who, granted, they are both crazy about – is that it doesn’t give them much time for each other. After over a year of being so madly in love with Yunho not having him exclusively to himself anymore throws Changmin for a loop.  
  
He catches Yunho as he’s leaving Sora’s room late one night. She was being fussy and it’s taken him ages to put her to sleep. Changmin slides his arms around Yunho from behind and rests his chin on his shoulder. Yunho tenses slightly, then relaxes back into his hold.  
  
“Hi,” Changmin murmurs. Yunho smiles slightly.  
  
“Hi,” he says. Changmin kisses the back of his neck.  
  
“Is she asleep?”  
  
“Yeah,” Yunho sighs. “Finally.”  
  
Changmin hums and nuzzles into Yunho’s neck. He smells like baby powder.  
  
“So, Sora’s asleep,” Changmin says. “And it’s just the two of us. . .” his hand slides around Yunho’s waist and flirts with the hem of his shirt. “I wonder how we could occupy ourselves.”  
  
Yunho bites his lip as Changmin presses wet, open-mouthed kisses against his neck.  
  
“Uh, well. . .we could watch a movie?” he tries weakly. Changmin works his way up to his ear and nibbles on it.  
  
“I can think of something much more fun that we could do,” he purrs. His fingers find their way under Yunho’s shirt and stroke his stomach. He hasn’t lost all the baby weight yet so he’s still kind of chubby. As far as Changmin’s concerned it just makes him even more irresistible.  
  
For some reason Yunho jerks away as soon as Changmin starts to slide a hand up his shirt. He shakes his head and turns to face him.  
  
“I – I don’t think we should – ” he starts.  
  
Changmin stares at him.  
  
“Yunho. It’s been a month. I wanted to give you time to recover from the surgery but. . .come on. I miss you,” Changmin steps closer and slides a hand up his arm. “Don’t you miss me?”  
  
“How can I miss you when we live together?”  
  
“You know what I mean.”  
  
Yunho sighs. Changmin’s never seen him look so unwilling at the prospect of sex; normally by now they’d already be in the bedroom with their clothes off.  
  
“I’m not in the mood,” Yunho mutters. Changmin can’t believe what he’s hearing.  
  
“How can you not be in the mood?” he asks. “You’ve never not been in the mood.”  
  
Yunho shoots him an annoyed look. “Just drop it okay? I’m tired and I don’t want to have sex, is that really so difficult to understand?”  
  
He’s suddenly flushed and angry and Changmin doesn’t understand why, which makes  _him_  angry. “I hardly think wanting to have sex for the first time in a month is asking too much,” he grits out.  
  
“Oh wow Changmin, you haven’t gotten any in a whole month. How ever did you survive,” Yunho says, tone laced with sarcasm.  
  
“What the hell is your problem?” Changmin demands.  
  
“My problem is that I don’t want to have sex with you right now,” Yunho snaps.  
  
“Well fine, because I’m taking back the offer!”  
  
“Good!”  
  
Yunho strides into their room and shuts the door behind him with a snap. Fuming, Changmin throws himself down on the couch and glares up at the ceiling, and that’s where he stays for the rest of the night.

 


	16. Chapter 16

They’re both over it by morning, but there’s a weird sort of tension in the way Yunho kisses him before work. Changmin opens his mouth to say something, but then Sora starts crying from the next room and Yunho’s gone. He sighs and leaves with a dejected goodbye.  
  
Boa comes home with him later that night. She bought a couple of new outfits for Sora and she and Yunho spend a good hour cooing over how pretty she looks in her new clothes. Changmin thinks she looks adorable too, but he’s back to being in a bad mood and doesn’t join in.  
  
“What’s his problem?” Boa asks, adjusting Sora’s bottle as she feeds her. Yunho sends Changmin an annoyed look.  
  
“He’s got blue balls,” he says flatly. Changmin growls low in his throat.  
  
Boa blinks. “You mean you guys haven’t – ”  
  
“Not since Sora was born,” Changmin says, meeting Yunho glare for glare.  
  
“But it’s been a month!”  
  
“I’m extremely aware of that.”  
  
Boa glances between them. Her lips twitch. “Well, you know, it’s not that uncommon. . .a lot of couples go through a rough patch in their relationship after having a kid. . .”  
  
Silence. They’re both still scowling at each other. Boa finishes feeding Sora and calmly sets the bottle down before putting her up to her shoulder to burp her.  
  
“Here’s a thought,” Boa says. “Why don’t I take Sora home with me tomorrow night?”  
  
Yunho jolts out of his silent staring match with Changmin. “What?”  
  
“It’ll be great, I get her all to myself for a night and you two can take some time off. Maybe pop a bottle of champagne, rekindle the romance, the works.”  
  
Yunho looks hesitant. “I don’t know. . .are you sure you’re up to it?”  
  
Boa rolls her eyes at him. “Please, I know more about taking care of her than you do. I  _taught_  you everything you know about taking care of her.”  
  
“Fair enough,” Yunho mumbles. He takes Sora from her and cradles her against his shoulder and Sora gurgles and drools on his shirt.  
  
“I think that’s a great idea,” Changmin says suddenly. He meets Boa’s eye. “I mean, as long as it’s no trouble for you.”  
  
“It’d be my pleasure,” Boa beams at him. Yunho sighs and agrees, though he doesn’t look thrilled about it.  
  
So the next night Boa comes over to whisk their daughter away. They have her baby bag prepared and Yunho rattles off a long list of instructions until Boa tells him to shut up and relax. She orders him to go load Sora’s things in the car while she stands in the driveway and coos at the baby.  
  
“Sora and Auntie Boa are going to have so much fun,” she says. Changmin raises an eyebrow.  
  
“Big night planned?”  
  
“Oh yeah, we’re going to knock back a couple of beers, maybe catch a gory action flick on TV while painting each other’s nails.”  
  
The look on Yunho’s face is priceless.  
  
“I’m joking, you complete loser. Except for the painting her nails part, I may actually do that,” Boa says. She glances at Changmin. “He really does need to get laid,” she mutters.  
  
“I’m working on it,” Changmin mutters back.  
  
They kiss Sora goodbye and buckle her into the baby seat as Boa gets behind the wheel. Changmin quietly thanks her when Yunho isn’t looking and she winks at him before driving off.  
  
It’s very quiet when they get into the house; almost too quiet. Yunho sighs and runs a hand through his hair before retreating to their room. Changmin follows him in and sits on the bed.  
  
“Hey,” he starts. Yunho glances over at him. “I’m sorry about last night. I don’t ever want you to feel pressured into anything.”  
  
Yunho shakes his head and comes over to sit beside him. “It’s okay. I was being a dick anyway. Probably just tired.”  
  
Changmin smiles and rubs a hand up his arm. “So this is good right? We can just relax for a night.”  
  
“Right,” Yunho says, but he doesn’t sound too convinced. Changmin leans over and kisses him in an attempt to dissuade his worries. Yunho sighs against his lips and kisses back, softly at first, then harder as the kiss heats up. Changmin guides him to lie back and hovers over him, all without breaking their kiss.  
  
“I – mm – missed this,” he murmurs into Yunho’s mouth. His hand slides up to pinch a nipple through his shirt and Yunho arches with a gasp. Changmin pulls away just long enough to fling his jacket off before kissing him again, hot and messy and deep. Yunho’s hands slide under his shirt and up his back.  
  
They shift, grind together a little. There’s no need to rush; they have all night after all. Changmin slips a hand under Yunho’s shirt and pushes it up and Yunho squirms and breaks their kiss with a gasp.  
  
“Get the lights,” he says.  
  
“What?”  
  
“The lights Changmin, turn the lights off.”  
  
“Huh? Why?”  
  
“Because I said so?”  
  
Changmin makes a frustrated sound and stops kissing him. “But that would require me to get off you and I’m really not in the mood to do that.” He takes Yunho’s lower lip between his teeth and tugs on it lightly. “Besides, I like being able to see you.”  
  
Yunho allows him to kiss him for a while longer before sitting up abruptly, causing Changmin to tumble off to the side.  
  
“I don’t want to do it with the lights on,” he says tersely. Changmin gapes up at him.  _What the hell?_  
  
“Who cares if they’re on or not?”  
  
“I care.”  
  
Changmin sits up and looks at him, really looks at him. Yunho has his shoulders hunched over and a hand fisted in his shirt. Changmin tries to think around the haze of arousal.  
  
“Yunho,” he says slowly. “Why don’t you want me to see you?”  
  
Yunho tenses up.  
  
“I – that’s not it,” he says.  
  
“That is so it. What’s the matter? You’ve been acting so weird, it’s starting to worry me.”  
  
Yunho shakes his head. “Forget it.” He turns back to Changmin and mashes their lips together. Changmin makes a surprised sound and kisses back before pulling away.  
  
“No. No, you’re not distracting me. Something’s wrong and I want to know what.”  
  
“Can you please just forget about it?”  
  
“Why don’t you want me seeing you?”  
  
“Because I don’t like how I look, okay!”  
  
Changmin stares at him. Yunho is breathing hard, shame warring with anger on his face. Any vestiges of arousal completely gone, Changmin rises up on his knees and takes Yunho’s face in his hands.  
  
“Yunho,” he says. “Look at me.”  
  
Yunho meets his eye reluctantly. He looks like he might cry, his mouth set in a thin line and his fists clenched. Changmin’s not sure yet why he’s so upset but it’s killing him inside to see it.  
  
“You don’t like how you look?” Changmin repeats quietly. Yunho takes a shuddering breath.  
  
“I’m fat,” he says flatly. “I’m a dancer Changmin – or I was anyway. I’ve always been so fit but now I’ve got flab and scars and stretch marks, it’s disgusting. I hate it. I hate my body.”  
  
Changmin can’t believe what he’s hearing. Beautiful, confident, sexy Yunho, talking about himself with such loathing in his voice. It’s unreal.  
  
“You had a baby a month ago,” he says carefully. “Nobody expects you to be back to your normal weight yet, least of all me.”  
  
“And if I never go back to my old weight?”  
  
Changmin smiles. “Then there’s just more of you for me to love.”  
  
Far from cracking a smile, Yunho shoots him a glare. “Is this a joke to you?” he asks, voice icy.  
  
“Wha – no! Yunho – ” Changmin flounders, at a loss for words. How could he have missed this? How had he not noticed that Yunho was in such a bad place? Had he really been so distracted by his daughter that he’d forgotten to take care of his partner, his lover, his other half? “How long have you felt like this?” he asks helplessly.  
  
Yunho looks down. “Since the week we brought Sora home,” he mutters.  
  
Changmin feels like hitting himself. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks softly.  
  
Yunho sighs and fidgets with the edge of the bedsheet.  
  
“I don’t know. You’ve just been so happy lately. . .I didn’t want to ruin it.”  
  
“How can I be happy when you’re so unhappy?”  
  
Yunho looks up and meets his gaze. He looks lost and unsure of himself and Changmin hates it. He never wants to see that look on Yunho’s face again. He wraps his arms around him and holds him close and Yunho buries his face in the crook of his neck.  
  
“Please don’t ever do that again,” Changmin says softly. “I don’t have a direct link to your emotions like you do to mine. I can’t know what you’re thinking unless you tell me. You have to tell me these things. Promise me that next time you’ll tell me sooner.”  
  
Yunho sniffs and nods against his neck. “I’m sorry. I promise.”  
  
They’re silent for a while. Changmin strokes a hand down Yunho’s back and rests his cheek against the top of his head.  
  
“I just. . .feel so lost lately,” Yunho whispers eventually. “I’ve given almost a year of my life to hiding and now I don’t know who I am anymore. I love you and Boa but sometimes I miss being around other people. I miss being able to go anywhere, do anything, I just – ” Yunho breaks off and swallows. “I know it’s selfish. We got Sora out of the deal, what more could I ask for?”  
  
“It’s not selfish,” Changmin says fiercely. “It’s not selfish at all to feel like that. God, Yunho. You’re the bravest, most selfless person I know. I don’t know if I could have done what you’ve done.”  
  
Yunho shakes his head and shrinks himself further into Changmin’s arms. “I don’t like it. I don’t like feeling like this. I hate that I can’t look at myself in the mirror anymore, I hate that I worry you’ll leave me even though I know it’s stupid,  _I know_  –”  
  
Changmin has never simultaneously felt so sad and so useless in his entire life. He clutches Yunho tighter and breathes in the musk of his scent.  
  
“I love you,” Changmin says softly. “I love you so much it scares me sometimes. I became a vampire for you, left my home for you, went rogue for you. I am never, ever going to leave you.”  
  
Yunho gives a choked little laugh. “Oh sure, just keep adding to the long list of things I’ll never be able to repay you for.”  
  
Changmin draws back slightly to stare at him. “Yunho. They scooped my baby out of you a month ago. For the rest of my life nothing I do for you will ever top that.”  
  
Yunho swallows and looks away. He takes a deep breath and seems to gather himself, and when he looks back at Changmin he looks a little more relaxed than before. He smiles slightly.  
  
“This was good. I’m glad I told you all that.”  
  
Changmin doesn’t know whether to cry or hit him. “Stupid,” he chokes out. “That’s what partners are for, so you can share shit like this!” He thumps Yunho’s chest and Yunho laughs and Changmin realises that he hasn’t heard Yunho laugh properly in almost a month. He groans and tumbles them down on the bed and kisses Yunho like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do.  
  
“Do that again,” Changmin breathes.  
  
“Do what?”  
  
“Laugh.”  
  
Yunho laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of his request. They undress each other frantically, heat and rising need washing through them. Yunho makes fantastic little sounds into his mouth and Changmin swallows them. He flicks his tongue out and traces the ridge of Yunho’s fangs. They unsheathe and Changmin pricks his tongue on them. The kiss grows bloody, both of them moaning as the intoxicating taste spills into their mouths. Changmin hisses, his own fangs lengthening into sharp points, and licks into Yunho’s mouth.  
  
After a while he draws back to gaze down at Yunho. He has his eyes squeezed shut and his fists clenched in the sheets, and Changmin knows he’s fighting the urge to cover himself. He takes Yunho’s face in his hands and strokes his cheeks until Yunho opens his eyes slowly and looks at him, hesitant and vulnerable. Changmin presses their foreheads together.  
  
“What’s the matter baby?” he breathes.  
  
A blush creeps up Yunho’s face. “I – sorry, it’s stupid – ”  
  
Changmin knows what he wants. He gets up with a sigh and turns the lights off. The light of a crescent moon spills in through the window and dimly illuminates Yunho, lying spread-eagled and flushed on the bed. Changmin straddles him and kisses him in the darkness, his chest tight.  
  
“I’m sorry – ” Yunho whispers. Changmin shakes his head.  
  
“Just so you know,” he says. “I think you’re the most stunning person I’ve ever laid eyes on.”  
  
Yunho sighs and turns his face away. Changmin kisses his way up his neck and to his ear. He nibbles on it and feels Yunho shudder under him.  
  
“I can’t make you love yourself again, Yunho,” Changmin says softly. “But I can love you enough for both of us.”  
  
A small smile curls Yunho’s lips. He slides an arm around Changmin’s waist and pulls him closer.  
  
“Well then,” he breathes. “Love me.”  
  
\- - -  
  
The problem with depression is that it doesn’t just disappear overnight. By morning Yunho is back to being in a foul mood, and he only cheers up when Boa drops by with Sora. He occupies himself with her for the rest of the day and avoids Changmin’s attempts to talk to him. Later that night he crawls into bed and kisses Changmin and tells him he’s sorry for ignoring him. Changmin doesn’t say anything, just wraps his arms around Yunho and holds him until he falls asleep.  
  
At a loss for what to do, Changmin asks Yunho if he can discuss it with Boa. She is a doctor after all, and a close friend. At first Yunho says no. He’s still cagey about the whole thing, hesitant to talk or even admit that he needs help. But he must sense how upset it’s making Changmin, because eventually he relents and agrees on the stipulation that  _he_  won’t have to talk to her about it.  
  
Changmin catches Boa at the end of a long day. He sits her down in her office and tells her everything, all his pain and worry at seeing Yunho in such a bad mental place spilling out almost despite himself, and he realises how desperately he had needed to talk to someone about it. The look on Boa’s face goes from concerned to distressed as she listens to him, but she waits for him to finish before speaking. She tells him that postpartum depression is not uncommon and that many women go through it after childbirth. There’s treatment available and Yunho should get it immediately, but first he’ll have to agree to see a psychiatrist and get a prescription. She says she knows a good one, a member of her pack who works at the clinic.  
  
Changmin shakes his head. “He won’t do it,” he says helplessly. “He barely even talks to me about it. I had to practically force him to admit it in the first place. He’s so stubborn, I don’t know how – ”  
  
“Maybe he can’t talk about it  _because_  it’s you,” Boa says gently. “It might be easier to open up to a stranger, someone whose opinion isn’t so important to him, someone who he’s not afraid of losing if he says the wrong thing.”  
  
“I would never – ”  
  
“I know that Changmin. He knows that too, but that ugly little voice in the back of his head isn’t letting him remember that.”  
  
She sighs and looks down. Changmin hates that he’s upset her, but when she looks up again her jaw is set with determination. She gets to her feet and grabs her bag.  
  
“Let’s go,” she says. Changmin blinks stupidly.  
  
“What? Where?”  
  
“I’m coming home with you. The sooner we convince Yunho to see someone the better.”  
  
“You can’t! I promised him he wouldn’t have to talk to you about this – ”  
  
“Well too bad.”  
  
Boa on a mission is an unstoppable force. Changmin trails helplessly after her and drives home with a sense of foreboding heavy in his chest. She seems almost angry, but all the fire drains out of her the moment they walk into the cottage.  
  
Yunho is sitting on the couch with Sora in his arms. She’s fast asleep and his head is bent over her, but it flies up as he hears the door open. His eyes are red and swollen and there’s the glimmer of tear tracks on his cheeks.  
  
Changmin’s heart shatters. Slowly, carefully, he goes over to Yunho and takes Sora from him. Yunho’s arms fall uselessly to his sides and Changmin goes to put her in her cot. By the time he comes back out Yunho is scrubbing his cheeks and Boa is sitting beside him talking quietly. Changmin hesitates in the doorway. He desperately wants to join the conversation, but then he remembers what Boa said about it being easier for Yunho to open up to someone who’s not him. He’s too close to the situation, too emotionally involved, and being hyperaware of his feelings won’t help Yunho deal with his own.  
  
Changmin retreats back into Sora’s room. He sinks into the rocking chair beside her cot, then changes his mind and lifts her back into his arms. The warm, sleepy weight of her is comforting. She squirms, disturbed by all the movement, then settles back into sleep as Changmin rocks her and hums some long-forgotten lullaby he once heard his mother sing to him. Her lips part, one tiny hand curled around the edge of her blanket, and Changmin dozes off to the sound of her deep, even breathing.  
  
He wakes a while later to the door opening as Yunho comes in. He looks tired but calm. He crouches beside the chair and strokes a thumb over Sora’s cheek, a small smile curling his lips when she murmurs in her sleep.  
  
“Where’s Boa?” Changmin asks.  
  
“She left,” Yunho says. “But she gave me this.” He holds up a business card. Changmin takes it from him and reads  _Dr Lee Hoyoung, psychiatrist_ , followed by an email, number and the address of the clinic. He looks back at Yunho.  
  
“I think we should call him tomorrow,” Yunho says quietly, tracing invisible shapes onto Changmin’s knee. Changmin swallows.  
  
“I think so too,” he says.  
  
Dr Lee spends only one session with Yunho before prescribing him antidepressants. He asks him to bring Changmin with him for the next session and Changmin sits there and listens to the doctor tell him all the technical terms for what Yunho’s got, that it’s very treatable and that he should be well again soon enough with the support of family and friends. Changmin clutches Yunho’s hand and nods a lot and tries not to feel too overwhelmed. Dr Lee encourages Yunho to start dancing again, saying exercise and setting new goals will help him recover faster. He even gives them the address of a dance studio on the outskirts of town and mentions that his sister owns the place and that he’d be happy to put in a good word. Changmin wonders how inappropriate it would be if he kissed the good doctor and settles for shaking his hand and thanking him over and over.  
  
It takes Yunho half an hour of hanging around the studio and simply being himself before they offer him a job. They want him to teach dance to their weekend kids classes; a bit of a step down from what he was doing back in the city, but Yunho’s out of both practice and shape so he agrees readily.  
  
Slowly, gradually, Yunho starts to get better. His smile becomes less forced, his happiness less medicated. After months of watching Yunho struggle to do the things that used to come so naturally to him it’s such a relief Changmin thinks he could cry. The first time Yunho initiates sex with him Changmin is so shocked he doesn’t respond for a whole minute, it’s been so long since Yunho made a move on him. That night he learns that when it’s with someone you love more than life it’s possible to both laugh and cry during sex.  
  
Afterwards when they’re lying together all tangled and sweaty they feed from one another, fangs buried in each other’s necks, and it’s the most perfect, exquisite sense of completion Changmin’s ever felt. He strokes Yunho’s face and kisses him again and again with blood-smeared lips and doesn’t care that they’re staining the sheets. It’s like his Yunho had disappeared and left a hollow shell behind, and it’s only now that he’s starting to re-occupy his own body.  
  
“Thank you for coming back to me,” Changmin whispers. Yunho smiles and licks at the bite on his throat, lapping up the last droplets of blood before it heals.  
  
“Thank you for bringing me home.”

 


	17. Chapter 17

Boa drops by one morning. They’re out the back; Yunho has started working on his strawberry patch again and expanded it to include other fruits and vegetables. Changmin is sitting on the swing watching Sora – she’s recently learnt to crawl and is happily squirming around on the ground near Yunho. Changmin thinks it’s deplorable for his little princess to be playing in the dirt, but Yunho just laughs and tells him not to be so uptight.  
  
“Marco?” Boa calls from inside the house.  
  
“Polo,” Yunho calls back. She appears in the doorway and smiles at them.  
  
“Well this is a nice picture,” she says as Yunho rises to hug her.  
  
“Even though Sora’s covered in dirt?” Changmin asks mournfully.  
  
“Especially because Sora’s covered in dirt,” Boa grins. She crouches beside her to give her a kiss and Sora looks up at her and squeals joyfully. She’s a happy baby, quick to laugh and slow to cry. She’s grown into her features a little more now and though she might have Changmin’s eyes the rest of her is all Yunho. Changmin is secretly glad – as far as he’s concerned Yunho’s the most gorgeous thing on the planet, so if their daughter looks like him she’s guaranteed to grow up beautiful.  
  
Boa joins him on the swing. Afternoon light filters through the trees and a gentle breeze ruffles their hair. Sora crawls away from Yunho and towards a grassy patch near the swing.  
  
“So how are you?” Boa asks him. Changmin blinks.  
  
“I’m fine,” he says automatically. Nobody’s asked him how he is in months; they’ve all, understandably so, been too focused on helping Yunho get better. Boa searches his face.  
  
“No, I mean. How are you really?”  
  
Changmin meets her eye, but he can’t hold it for long before he has to look away. “I’m. . .tired,” he admits, too quietly for Yunho to hear. “I feel like I’ve been caring for both Yunho and Sora on my own for months now and frankly it’s been exhausting.” He scrubs a hand over his face. He feels almost bad for admitting this, because caring for his partner and his child shouldn’t feel like a burden. Boa makes an understanding sound and rubs his back.  
  
“I suspected as much. I’m sorry I can’t be here more often to help out – ”  
  
Changmin shakes his head. “You’ve done so much already, we can’t possible ask any more from you.”  
  
Silence falls between them. Yunho is humming under his breath as he works. He glances up and gives Changmin a smile and Changmin feels some of his exhaustion vanish.  
  
A cricket hops out of the grass near Sora. She blinks, surprised, then crawls after it as it hops away.  
  
“Listen, I want to take you guys somewhere tomorrow night,” Boa says, her eyes following Sora. “There’s a cave up in the mountainside that the pack uses for meetings and get-togethers. It’s going to be a full moon so everyone will be there. A couple of the girls who helped with the birth have been asking after Sora and Hoyoung – Dr Lee – suggested I bring you guys along and I think it’s a great idea. You can mingle and relax for a while.”  
  
“Is it safe?” Changmin asks. “I mean if there are going to be wolves transforming left and right – ”  
  
“We’ve all had our shots so we can control the transformation; the full moon just tends to make us restless and seek the pack out.”  
  
“I thought rogues refused to get their shots on principle.”  
  
Boa shrugs. “It’s silly not to, especially when people like Hoyoung and I can get a hold of them so easily. Principles can be fought for in other ways.”  
  
Changmin chews his lower lip as he considers. Nearby, Sora has crawled into the grass in pursuit of her cricket. It alights on a blade and she shoots her hand out and grabs it. She’s fast – faster than a human child. She’s transferring the wriggling bug to her mouth when Changmin materialises by her side. He scolds her lightly and pries the cricket out of her hand. It drops to the ground and limps away, one of its wings bent.  
  
Rebuked and denied her toy, Sora’s lower lip trembles. Her eyes fill with tears and she starts to cry as Changmin picks her up. He sighs and brushes dirt off her face.  
  
“Yunho, our daughter looks like a street urchin,” he says. Yunho looks up at him and shields his eyes against the sun.  
  
“An adorable street urchin who passersby would want to adopt,” he beams. Changmin rolls his eyes and goes into the house to clean and change Sora. She cheers up during bathtime, and eventually Changmin comes back out with his arms full of happy, squirmy, clean baby. Boa has joined Yunho at the strawberry patch in the interim and they’re both busy digging into the ground. Yunho looks up as he spots them and Sora reaches her arms out in an attempt to go to him. Changmin huffs and holds her back – Yunho is no cleaner than she was mere moments ago and there’s no way he’s letting her get all dirty again.  
  
Yunho gets to his feet and dusts himself off. “I think she’s hungry. Can you feed her while I shower?”  
  
“Sure.”  
  
Yunho pecks him on the lips before disappearing into the house. Changmin and Boa follow him in and she takes Sora from him while he prepares her bottle.  
  
“He seems to be doing a lot better,” Boa says. Changmin smiles.  
  
“Yeah. Hey listen, I think meeting the pack would be great. It’s been a while since we had a night out.”  
  
Boa perks up. “Yeah? Awesome, I’ll come get you guys tomorrow night and we can go together.”  
  
Later that night after Boa leaves Changmin tells Yunho about her invitation. Yunho and Sora are playing on the rug in front of the lit fireplace; he stacks building blocks into neat little towers and Sora reaches out to demolish them with a sweep of her hand. It’s making her squeal with laughter every time they tumble down.  
  
“That sounds like fun,” Yunho says, completing another block tower for Sora to demolish. Changmin is sprawled out on the couch with his laptop open in front of him, but he’s spending more time watching them than looking at the screen. Something pokes into his side and Changmin reaches into the back of the couch and pulls out an unopened bottle of pills. He reads the date on it and raises an eyebrow.  
  
“Yunho. Did you stop taking your medicine?” Changmin asks slowly. Yunho glances up and sees the pill bottle in his hand. He gives Changmin a guilty look.  
  
“Um. Yeah.”  
  
Changmin frowns. “Since when? And why didn’t you tell me?”  
  
“It’s only been a week,” Yunho says earnestly. He stops stacking blocks in order to explain. “It’s no big deal – I’m a lot better now and I don’t like how the pills were making me feel, all dead inside. I needed it before but now it just makes things worse.”  
  
Changmin doesn't like the sound of that. He sits up and fixes Yunho with a serious look. “Did Dr Lee say you could stop taking them?”  
  
Yunho looks down. “No,” he mumbles. Sora is watching him expectantly, waiting for him to start stacking again.  
  
“ _Yunho_ ,” Changmin says, a clear warning in his tone. Yunho flinches.  
  
“I don’t need them anymore,” he insists. Changmin slides off the couch and comes to kneel on the rug in front of him. Bored, Sora starts trying to stack the blocks herself.  
  
“You need the pills for as long as Dr Lee says you need them. You can talk to him about stopping your medication next time you see him but until then you have to keep taking it. It’s better to be safe than sorry; the last thing we need is a relapse,” Changmin says quietly. He cups Yunho’s cheek and turns his head so their eyes meet. “I don’t want to force you to take your medicine Yunho. Don’t make me go there.”  
  
Yunho sighs into his palm. The firelight throws shadows across the soft contours of his face. “I just. . .wanted to feel normal again,” he whispers.  
  
Changmin sighs and drops his hand. A sad little silence falls between them. He glances at Sora – she’s managed to stack three of the blocks and is looking extremely proud of herself. She knocks the little tower down and looks up at them for approval but when neither of them reacts she crawls over to Yunho and paws at his knee.  
  
“Da,” she says, loud and clear. Yunho stares at her and she repeats the sound, gazing up at him imploringly with those big brown eyes.  
  
“Have you been teaching her to call you daddy?” Changmin asks softly.  
  
“Yeah,” Yunho breathes. “Ever since we agreed I’d be daddy and you’d be father.”  
  
“Da!” Sora agrees, excited at the sound of a word she recognises. Yunho picks her up and kisses her and she wraps her arms around his neck. The dejection melts out of his shoulders and he smiles, which makes Changmin smile.  
  
The last few months have been physically and emotionally exhausting for both of them, but one sweet gesture from their little girl makes it all fade away. Her smile is worth every sacrifice they’ve made along the way; Changmin didn’t think it was possible for him to love someone so tiny so much. He’d always felt awkward around babies in the past, never sure how to act or whether he was holding them right but from the moment he first held Sora in his arms there had been no apprehension in him for one simple reason: she was his. He strokes her head and Sora makes a sleepy sound and arches towards him. It’s his turn to tuck her in and, like clockwork, she knows it. He takes her from Yunho and gets to his feet, and she yawns and lays her head on his shoulder.  
  
“I’m going to put her to bed,” he says. Yunho nods and watches them go with a soft, tender look on his face.  
  
When Changmin comes back into the living room Yunho has cleared the building blocks away and is lying on the rug with one arm over his eyes. He’s curled towards the fire, warm and sleepy in its heat. Changmin straddles him and Yunho lowers his arm with a smile.  
  
Changmin kisses him, warm and sweet, hands curling in his hair, and Yunho arches into him with a pleased hum. He opens his mouth and Changmin dips his tongue inside, the slick sounds of kissing loud in the silence of the cottage. Yunho moans into his mouth until Changmin pulls away and trails wet kisses down his neck, fingers toying with the buttons of his shirt.  
  
“Need you,” Changmin murmurs. Yunho laughs softly.  
  
“What, right here?”  
  
“Right here.”  
  
They kiss again, hands slowly clutching at each other with more urgency. The fire crackles behind them. Changmin finishes unbuttoning Yunho’s shirt and pushes it off. He kisses his way down his neck and collarbones and chest, taking a nipple between his teeth and tugging on it lightly until Yunho whimpers. He’s lost weight since he started dancing again. The stretch marks are gone, long since healed over. The only reminder of the pregnancy is a scar on Yunho’s stomach from where they cut Sora out of him. Changmin presses his lips against it and carefully traces the mark with his tongue.  
  
Yunho’s breath slows. When Changmin raises his head he sees that he has his eyes squeezed shut and an almost pained expression on his face. He rests his cheek against the soft expanse of Yunho’s tummy, gropes for his hands and laces their fingers together.  
  
“Okay?” he asks.  
  
Yunho opens his eyes and smiles down at him. “Yeah. Don’t stop.”  
  
Changmin squirms down his body and tugs the rest of his clothes off. He takes Yunho erection in hand and strokes him, and Yunho tilts his head back with a soft grunt. It’s kind of hot that he’s naked while Changmin is still mostly dressed. He watches the firelight play across Yunho’s skin, lighting him bronze and gold, licking at the dip of his waist and the soft mounds of his chest. He’s so hard and hot, the weight of his cock familiar in Changmin’s hand as he works him the way he knows Yunho likes. Precum oozes over his fingers as he strokes him faster and Yunho writhes and makes desperate little sounds in the back of his throat.  
  
Changmin pants, incredibly turned on watching Yunho get off. There’s an almost voyeuristic pleasure in it; he gets nothing from jerking Yunho off but Yunho’s pleasure is so tangible, so precious to him that it layers into his own. He reaches down with his free hand to grope at his balls and Yunho automatically spreads his legs for him. He meets Changmin’s eye, lips parted, cheeks flushed with desire, and Changmin moans low in his throat at the sight of him.  
  
“Cha – Changmin,” Yunho stutters. “I’m going to – ”  
  
“Come baby,” Changmin breathes, twisting his wrist and squeezing harder. His thumb swipes over the slit. “Come for me.”  
  
Yunho groans and thrashes under him. Changmin lowers his head and closes his mouth around the leaking tip of Yunho’s cock and Yunho climaxes with a cry. Changmin drinks him down, sucking on him until Yunho stops shuddering and collapses back against the rug.  
  
Changmin raises his head and licks his lips. Yunho is watching him, dazed and satisfied. He slides his feet up until his knees are bent, legs open and inviting.  
  
“Take your clothes off,” he orders. Changmin smirks and strips in record time. He considers doing it slowly, making a show of it to get Yunho going again, but he’s too impatient now and Yunho is already half-hard by the time he’s naked. He gropes under the sofa and emerges victorious with a tube of lube. Yunho raises an eyebrow as Changmin settles between his legs and hitches one onto his shoulder.  
  
“Do you just stash lube all over the house in case of moments like this?” he asks. Changmin slicks his fingers and grins at him.  
  
“Yeah, pretty much.”  
  
He pushes two fingers in and Yunho grunts and clenches around him.  
  
“Sora’s going to find that one day and put it in her mouth and die,” Yunho says forebodingly. Changmin rolls his eyes and presses a third finger into him.  
  
“No talk about our daughter when we’re fucking,” he commands. “It’s too weird.”  
  
Yunho grins as Changmin withdraws his fingers, slicks himself up and starts to push into him.  
  
“You can be – ah! – such a prude sometimes,” Yunho groans as he sinks in to the hilt. “As if we weren’t doing it up to like the week before she was born. Babies can feel everything at that point you know.”  
  
“Yunho – for fuck’s sake – can we change the subject,” Changmin pants, thrusting into him at a steady pace. He hits his prostate on the third try and Yunho shudders and clenches around him.  
  
“Why, is this one killing your boner?” Yunho grins at him. Changmin growls and thrusts into him hard.  
  
“No, and that’s disturbing me on a whole other level.”  
  
Yunho laughs breathlessly and presses his cheek against the rug.  
  
“I don’t understand why discussing Sora should be a moodkiller. After all this is how we made her.”  
  
“That’s it.”  
  
Changmin pulls out and flips Yunho onto his stomach. Yunho yelps as he shoves back into him, then groans as the new angle seats Changmin even deeper inside him. He arches his back and rises up on his elbows and knees as Changmin takes hold of his hips and fucks him at a hard pace. All thought is immediately wiped from his head, other than a few stray ones like  _yes_  and  _more_.  
  
“Oh – good – tactic – ” Yunho pants. Changmin shakes sweaty hair out of his eyes.  
  
“Still thinking?” he gasps, overwhelmed at the heat and slickness of Yunho’s passage.  
  
“Huh?” Yunho groans as Changmin starts hitting his sweet spot on each thrust. Changmin smirks as Yunho keens and scrabbles at the rug, drunk on lust and completely abandoned to pleasure. The fire burns lower, but the heat of the flames is nothing compared to the heat rising between them. The slap of skin against skin punctuates their groans and whimpers.  
  
“Harder,” Yunho moans. “Fuck me harder – ” he starts to turn over but Changmin growls and holds him down.  
  
“Bad – kitty – ” he grunts, thrusting into him faster. “Stay put.”  
  
Yunho whines and pushes back against him. He’s so needy, flushed and covered in sweat. Changmin reaches down and strokes him in time to his thrusts and Yunho cries out. His shoulders strain with the effort of holding himself up, his lips parted around a steady stream of whimpers. His whole body shakes which the force of Changmin’s thrusts, each one aimed so perfectly at that spot that it’s left him incoherent.  
  
“Oh – I’m close, I’m so close – ” Yunho moans. His head lolls, exposing the sweaty expanse of his neck and Changmin hisses. He sinks a hand in Yunho’s hair and tugs his head back. His fangs lengthen past his lower lip and he leans over Yunho and bites hungrily into his neck.  
  
Yunho cries out and comes all over his hand. His clenching drives Changmin over the edge with him and he thrusts in one last time, shudders and comes inside him, head spinning as he sucks up mouthfuls of Yunho’s blood. Yunho pants and trembles under him, his brow furrowed at the heady mixture of pain and pleasure. Changmin pulls away and leaves a bloody kiss on his cheek.  
  
They draw apart reluctantly. Changmin grabs a throw off the couch and they curl up under it, too lazy to make the trip to their bedroom. The fire is only embers by now and in the dim light he can just make out Yunho smiling sleepily at him.  
  
“So what do you think the chances are of you getting pregnant again?” Changmin asks. Yunho laughs and nuzzles at his temple.  
  
“Who knows,” he says. “I mean Sora was sort of a special case wasn’t she? She was destined or whatever.” He makes air quotes around the word ‘destined’ and Changmin smiles and curls closer to him.  
  
“Prophecy or not,” he murmurs. “I’m glad this was my destiny.”  
  
Yunho’s breath hitches. He lifts a hand and strokes the curve of Changmin’s cheek. “Me too,” he whispers.  
  
Their lips meet, just a soft, warm press of mouths. Changmin sighs and closes his eyes, drowsy with heat and contentment.  
  
“. . .You do realise we’ll have to shift to the bed eventually,” Yunho says after a while.  
  
Changmin groans and flings a leg over him, trapping Yunho with his limbs. “Don’t you dare move,” he mumbles, and drops off the soft sound of Yunho’s laughter.  
  



	18. Chapter 18

A cool breeze rustles through the trees as they walk up their old hiking trail. Boa strides ahead of them, bright-eyed and excited; the full moon pulls at her bones, drawing her to the pack like a physical anchor. She’d come to get them earlier that evening and made them swear not to reveal the location of the pack’s cave, to which Changmin had tartly replied that they didn’t even know anyone else around here who they might tell. Boa had whacked him for that.  
  
They round an outcrop of rock, past which the mountainside falls away in a steep drop. Yunho has Sora in his arms and she makes a surprised sound as a bird screeches overhead, her head turning towards the direction it came from. He rubs her back soothingly and quickens his pace to catch up with Boa and Changmin. They climb higher, past the spot where they went camping, deeper and deeper into the forest.  
  
Changmin senses the wolves before he sees them. His hackles go up automatically and he draws closer to Yunho and Sora as they emerge into a clearing ringed by boulders. He glances at Yunho and receives a reassuring smile in response, which makes him relax a little.  
  
When he looks ahead of him again Boa is gone. In her place stands a silver wolf, bushy tailed and with bright yellow eyes. Boa the woman is small and slender, but her wolf is huge and powerful and wears authority like a crown. She leaps onto a boulder, raises her head to the moon and howls.  
  
Answering howls break out from the woods around them. The sound of them echoes in his head, a primal call for family, and despite himself Changmin finds his heart rate speeding up. The howling seems to last a long time and Yunho murmurs softly to Sora in case the noise makes her cry, but she’s silent and wide-eyed in fascination.  
  
“Oo-oo,” she mimics, bouncing in his arms, and Yunho smiles at her innocent excitement.  
  
Boa leaps down from the boulder and runs past them, her tail wagging happily – and then out of the trees wolves emerge, wolves of every size and colour. There are at least forty of them in total and they crowd around each other, yipping in greeting. A couple of them come over to sniff Yunho and Changmin curiously. A russet brown wolf nudges the back of Changmin’s knee, circles him briefly, then runs off with a yap. One by one the wolves disappear into a hidden opening around the boulder Boa had stood on. She comes over to Yunho and Changmin and jerks her head at them and they follow her into the cave beyond.  
  
It’s a wide, earthy space cut into the side of the mountain. The pack has made it homey with flaming torches bracketing the walls and blankets and cushions on the floor. There’s a rudimentary sort of charm to it; there’s no electricity this deep in the forest so the only source of light is fire and moonlight. There’s a hole in the ceiling through which the sky is visible and the full moon slants light into the center of the cave. Boa is standing under it, a woman again, her arms open in invitation as they step into her domain.  
  
“Welcome,” she smiles at them, and Changmin feels an answering smile tug at his lips. All around them wolves start transforming back into people and the bustle of chatter and laughter fills the cave. They light a bonfire and smoke curls up towards the hole in the ceiling. A young girl comes over and shyly asks if she can hold Sora and Yunho lets her take her. A few other girls come over and coo over her and Sora laughs up at them, revelling in the attention. They start to carry her off with them and Changmin opens his mouth in protest, but Boa raises a placating hand.  
  
“Julie will take care of her, don’t worry.” She sprawls out across a cushion and pats the space beside her. “Come, sit with me.”  
  
They sit beside her and people come over to lay down food and drink. Boa greets each of them by name and introduces them to Yunho and Changmin. It’s clear that they all regard her with respect, and being her guests has elevated them to a position of honour. They take the offered wine with nods of thanks and Changmin allows himself to relax back against the cushions. The atmosphere couldn’t be more different than with the last group of rogues they had tangled with; the pack are clearly all very familiar with each other. He glances at Yunho and sees him watching Sora and the girls with a smile and is suddenly very glad they came here tonight; Yunho’s smiles have become so precious to him lately that anyone who can engender them is instantly a friend in his books. He glances over at Boa and sees that she’s also watching Yunho with a similarly fond expression on her face.  
  
“This is nice,” Changmin says. “Thank you for inviting us.”  
  
She smiles at him. “It was my pleasure. I like seeing you two happy.”  
  
The brown wolf that had nudged him outside enters the cave and transforms into the tall, bespeckled figure of Dr Lee Hoyoung. He’s a middle-aged man several years older than them, broad, soft-spoken and well-groomed; the last person in the world anyone would expect to be a rogue werewolf. He strides over to them and Yunho rises to greet him.  
  
“Dr Lee!” he says, reaching out to shake his hand. Dr Lee takes it and clasps his shoulder with a laugh.  
  
“Please, just Hoyoung – I’m only Dr Lee during visiting hours.” He indicates the empty spot beside Boa. “May I?”  
  
“Hoyoung you’re my first beta, you hardly need to ask permission to sit with me,” she says, scooting over to make room for him. He grins and settles down beside her.  
  
“Sorry, I’m still getting used to the position since you got promoted to alpha.”  
  
Changmin gives Boa a curious look. “You only became alpha recently?”  
  
She shifts and clears her throat. “Not that recently. It’s been over a year already – since the night you arrived in town, in fact.” She meets Yunho’s eye, and understanding flares between them.  
  
“The man who died that night, your lover – he was the alpha before you, wasn’t he,” Yunho says. Boa gives a short nod. They’d never asked her about him after that night; the topic felt too sensitive for them to bring it up in normal conversation and she had never mentioned him to them, but now it rears its head again.  
  
“Boa,” Changmin says softly. “How did he die?”  
  
She sighs and looks away. “You probably don’t remember it, but the night before you came to town was a full moon. A fledging wolf had lost control and bitten a man in the neighboring town by mistake. The Department got wind of the incident and was heading there to check it out but Kyungmin – my boyfriend – wanted to get there first, inoculate them both and bring them into our pack.” Boa’s voice grows distant as she talks. It’s been a year but it’s clear the memory still hurts. “I warned him not to go. I told him if the Department caught him there he’d be a dead man. We argued about it, but Kyungmin – he wouldn’t listen to me. He said it would be worse for the fledglings if the Department caught them first. He took two members of the pack with him and left.”  
  
Boa pauses and swallows. Hoyoung reaches over and covers her hand with his and she gives him a brief smile. “They were too late. The Department was already there by the time they arrived. They killed the fledglings, and Kyungmin when he tried to protect them. Hoyoung just managed to escape – he got back and called me, and that was when we met.” Boa indicates Yunho and Changmin. Changmin lets out a breath, but Yunho is watching Hoyoung with a question in his eyes.  
  
“I was one of the wolves who went with Kyungmin that night,” Hoyoung answers his silent question. “It wasn’t pretty.”  
  
Changmin shakes his head. “This doesn’t make sense. The Department doesn’t kill rogues unless they fight back; their purpose is to capture them and bring them in for inoculation or questioning.”  
  
“They don’t do that anymore,” Boa says. “They haven’t been doing that for almost a year now. They’ve started killing rogues on sight. I don’t know when their orders changed, but we’re fighting for our lives here.”  
  
The back of Changmin’s neck prickles. He can’t imagine his father authorising something like that; the man was tough but he wasn’t a killer. Something niggles at the back of his mind, some off-hand remark his mother had made about trouble with the Department. . .  
  
“What we need is someone powerful on our side,” Hoyoung murmurs. “Fighting the Department on the ground will achieve nothing; it only gives them more reasons to hunt us down. We need someone with political clout willing to fight for supernatural rights through legal means. . .but there’s nobody like that in this country.”  
  
Changmin licks his lips. He exchanges a glance with Yunho and knows what he’s thinking. Yunho tilts his head, silently asking permission, and Changmin grimaces and raises his shoulder in a small shrug; Boa had shared a very personal story with them tonight so it was only fair that they return the favour.  
  
“Changmin’s father is President Shim,” Yunho says quietly.  
  
Silence falls. Around them the noise of the pack continues unabated, but for a few seconds the four of them sit in complete silence. Boa stares at him in shock and Changmin meets her gaze calmly.  
  
“How is that possible?” she whispers.  
  
Changmin’s lips quirk up at the corners. “You’re not the only one here capable of keeping a secret. Or didn’t you ever wonder why I never told you my last name?”  
  
“Of course,” Boa breathes. “Of course I wondered – Shim Changmin,” she says suddenly. “You’re Shim Changmin, President Shim’s only son. Everybody knows the president has a son, but he’s notoriously media-shy. . .nobody’s seen him in public for years and years. . .”  
  
“Guilty as charged,” Changmin smiles.  
  
Boa is gazing at him with an indefinable look on her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks.  
  
Changmin’s expression shutters. “My relationship with my parents is. . .less than ideal. I don’t like to talk about them if I can help it.”  
  
There’s a squeal of laughter from nearby and, distracted, they all glance over. One of the young men has joined the girls playing with Sora and is tossing her in the air and catching her in his arms, making her giggle with joy. The pack members around her laugh, charmed by her fearless and friendly nature.  
  
“And Sora?” Boa asks. “What’s her relationship with them?”  
  
“She doesn’t have one,” Changmin says flatly.  
  
“Maybe she should.”  
  
They stare each other down. Yunho and Hoyoung are silent, glancing between them with apprehension. Changmin is not unused to butting heads with Boa – both of them have a tendency to be blunt and strong-willed, often convinced that their opinion is the right one, and this conversation seems to be heading down a path Changmin doesn’t like.  
  
“What are you implying?” he asks.  
  
Boa sits up straight, her eyes gleaming with sudden purpose. “I’m implying that I think I understand what the prophecy means now. Sora’s special – I don’t think even you realise how special she is. She’s a crossbreed, half-vampire half-human – and now she has a pack. She can encompass all three facets of our society, and she does all that while being the granddaughter of the most powerful man in the country. There’s nobody else like her in this world.” She glances at Hoyoung and some silent understanding passes between them. “She could be the key we’ve been looking for. There’s power in a name Changmin – in your name. With the right upbringing Sora could do great things.”  
  
A chill slides down Changmin’s spine. He exchanges a look with Yunho and sees the conflict on his face.  
  
“I ran away from that world Boa,” he says. “I detest politics – there’s no way I’m pushing my daughter into it.”  
  
“You may not have a choice,” Boa says forebodingly.  
  
Changmin flares up. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?” he demands.  
  
“It means that Sora will one day be old enough to make her own decisions whether you like it or not, and I for one won’t advise her against a political career,” Boa shoots back.  
  
“You have no right – ” Changmin growls.  
  
“I’m her godmother – ”  
  
“Enough,” Yunho says. His voice is quiet but they both instantly grow silent. He rises and retrieves Sora from her gaggle of fans before settling back beside them with her in his lap. “All of this is immaterial right now, not least because Changmin’s parents don’t even know Sora exists.”  
  
Boa blinks. “That hardly seems fair to them,” she says, which makes Changmin snort in derision.  
  
“You don’t know them like I do. Trust me it’s better this way – they’d be horrified to know they had a granddaughter who was even half vampire.” He clenches his teeth, old resentment bubbling to the surface. “My father established the Department and you know first hand what they do to supernaturals.”  
  
Boa’s expression softens. The anger disappears from between them, gone as quickly as it had come, and she reaches over and takes his hand.  
  
“I’m not a fan of your father’s policies,” she says. “But he is not a cruel man. There’s a reason he keeps getting re-elected. I’ve followed his political career for a while now and I’m positive that whatever’s happening with the Department is happening outside his authority. And vampire or not, he doesn't strike me as the sort of man who would turn his granddaughter away if you brought her to him.”  
  
Changmin jerks his head in silent negation. She doesn’t understand – she doesn’t know –  
  
Yunho’s hand cups the back of his neck, warm and large, and all the bitterness drains out of Changmin. He sighs and meets his eye and the soft warmth of Yunho’s gaze steadies him.  
  
A cloud shifts and moonlight spills in through the opening in the ceiling again. It seems to make the pack restless – a couple of them transform into wolves and bound out of the cave. The fire burns higher and Sora squirms in Yunho’s arms. She’s started eating solids recently and he feeds her small portions of banana from the food laid out in front of them. Her mouth closes over his fingers, chubby baby cheeks puffing out, and Changmin reaches over and pinches one lightly. She makes a sound of annoyance and glares up at him, and her expression is so reminiscent of the ones he sometimes had in his baby pictures that it makes him laugh.  
  
“You know she hates having her cheeks pinched,” Yunho scolds him.  
  
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Changmin grins.  
  
He glances over and sees Boa and Hoyoung talking quietly about something or other. Hoyoung’s hand is hovering near her shoulder, his eyes on Boa’s face as she talks.  
  
Possessiveness flares inside Changmin. He knows that look – he’s seen it on Yunho’s face enough times when he looks at him. It’s a look of badly-suppressed longing. He can hardly blame the man; after all Boa is very desirable.  
  
_But she’s ours,_  a jealous little voice whispers in the back of his mind, and he doesn’t even know where it came from.  _She belongs with us so just back off._  
  
He doesn’t realise he’s glaring until Hoyoung glances up and gives him a confused look. Changmin forces his expression to smooth out, but he can sense Yunho stiffen beside him; Yunho who is intimately aware of his every thought and feeling. The moment had come and gone so quickly and yet Changmin feels shaken to his core, surprised at the vehemence of his own reaction. Guilt twists through him. He can see Yunho looking at him out of the corner of his eye but can’t meet his gaze.  
  
“Sora’s tired. I think we should go,” Yunho says after a short silence, but his eyes are on Changmin.  
  
“I’ll show you back,” Boa says, rising to her feet with them. They take their leave, saying goodbye to the pack members lingering nearby. One of the girls who was playing with Sora asks if she can come by the cottage sometimes to see her and Yunho agrees happily.  
  
Boa goes wolf as they head back to the cottage. She runs ahead of them, a silver shadow flickering through the trees and they match her in speed, Sora cradled safe against Yunho’s chest. The wind rushes past, ruffling Boa’s fur as she runs faster, yapping at them to catch up with her. It’s exhilarating, a natural rush that only supernatural speed can give. Changmin grins, feral and breathless, and sees the answering glint of Yunho’s fangs in the darkness of the forest.  
  
They reach the cottage in record time. Boa skids to a halt and dirt goes flying everywhere. She shakes it out of her fur, tongue hanging out as she pants. Changmin’s landing is more smooth – he comes to a sudden and abrupt halt beside her, then catches Yunho against his chest with a laugh. Sora gets jolted between them and whines; Yunho had zipped her up inside his jacket before they started to run and she had dozed off in the warmth of his arms. Changmin murmurs softly at her and strokes the fine tufts of her silky black hair and she sighs back into sleep.  
  
When he looks around Boa is a woman again, her hair a dark cloud around her head, her eyes still yellow and wild with the memory of the wolf. She grins at him and they go into the house. Yunho leaves to put Sora in her cot and Boa turns to Changmin.  
  
“Listen, I’m sorry about before,” she says. “How Sora is raised is between you and Yunho, it’s not my place to interfere like that – ”  
  
Changmin shakes his head and presses a finger against her lips. “It is very much your place. We made you her godmother for a reason; we want you to be involved in her upbringing. It’s just – I need some time to wrap my head around all this.”  
  
Boa makes a sound of understanding and he drops his hand. They gaze at each other for a long moment. The yellow fades from Boa’s eyes, leaving them their natural dark brown. Changmin searches her gaze for something he’s not even sure of himself. It’s amazing how Boa can be so giving while at the same time hold back so much. He can tell what Yunho is thinking just from looking at him but with Boa he never really knows what’s going on behind those kind, intelligent eyes. On some level it excites him.  
  
Yunho comes back into the room and the moment is gone. Boa turns to him and smiles, the sort of smile she reserves only for Yunho.  
  
“I should get back to the pack,” she says. Yunho nods, then suddenly pulls her into his arms and hugs her tightly, his frame swallowing her smaller body. Boa looks a little surprised, then relaxes into his embrace and hugs him back.  
  
“Thank you for letting us in,” he whispers into her ear. Boa’s eyes close.  
  
“Right back at you,” she murmurs. They draw apart and Yunho tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear, his expression soft with fondness.  
  
Her hand curls briefly in Changmin’s before she heads for the door. He has the brief impression of silver fur and the pad of huge paws and then Boa disappears into the night.  
  
A tense sort of silence falls in her wake. It’s been a strange night for them, made no less stranger than the increasing complexity of their relationship with Boa. Yunho retreats into their bedroom and Changmin follows him, worrying his lower lip with his teeth.  
  
“I’m sorry,” he blurts out. Yunho raises an eyebrow.  
  
“For what?”  
  
“For my reaction to Hoyoung back there. For – for feeling this way. It feels like a betrayal to you. I shouldn’t feel that way about anyone but you – ”  
  
“ _Do_  you feel about Boa the same way you feel about me?” Yunho asks. He sounds more curious than anything. Changmin hesitates.  
  
“Yes and no. You’re my partner, my soulmate, and nobody else can ever measure up to that but with Boa I just – ” he swallows. “I love her Yunho. I want her in our lives, in our family. I picture you and her and Sora and – that’s it. That’s home for me.”  
  
The look on Yunho’s face is hard to define. He looks almost proud for a second before it settles into a tender smile.  
  
“And do you really think I feel any differently?” he asks. Changmin stares at him and Yunho laughs softly. “You really are thick when it comes to feelings. I’ve loved Boa for months now. I was just waiting for you to catch up and admit you love her too.”  
  
There’s a pause, then they both move towards each other at the same time. Changmin crushes Yunho’s mouth under his and knows that there is nobody in this world who could be more perfect for him.


	19. Chapter 19

Something changes after that night. After all this time spent dancing around each other it’s as though the three of them are finally on the same page. They have no more secrets left to hide from each other and that opens up a wonderful new aspect of their relationship. Boa’s carefully constructed walls crumble and leave her uncharacteristically vulnerable around them. She starts dropping by more often, claiming she wants to spend time with Sora, but they all know it’s more than that. The first time she ends up staying the night she insists she take the couch, but halfway through the night Yunho gets up, gathers her in his arms and brings her into their bed. She’s soft and warm curled up between them, the fragrance of her hair and body wash so different to their own more masculine scents.  
  
Changmin doesn’t know how their strange little threesome might look to others but he’s too happy to care. For the most part it’s an innocent attraction, driven purely by the comfort of finding someone who just fits so seamlessly into their lives. The months pass and Boa’s birthday comes around, and they throw a surprise party for her at the cottage and invite all their friends from the pack. The party is a hit, though they have to wind down early after Sora falls asleep and Changmin declares a blanket ban on making any more noise in case it wakes her. He sees the last few stragglers out and returns to the living room, where Boa and Yunho are sitting in front of the fireplace with wine glasses in hand. Both of them are drunk, giggling and flushed, and making increasingly ridiculous toasts as the night wears on.  
  
“To Sora!” Boa declares. “May she grow up and rule the world.”  
  
They clink glasses and drink. Changmin bites back a grin and shakes his head. He’s tipsy but nowhere near as buzzed as the other two. Yunho spots him coming over and raises his glass.  
  
“To Changmin,” he slurs. “For being such a sexy stud muffin.”  
  
“I’ll drink to that,” Boa agrees, and they clink glasses again. Changmin laughs and helps Yunho to his feet.  
  
“Come on, time for bed,” he says. Yunho wraps an arm around his waist and nuzzles into his neck. His face is very red. He doesn’t get drunk often but when he does he almost always ends up jumping Changmin, because a drunk Yunho is a horny Yunho.  
  
“Oh you smell good,” he mumbles. “Wanna bite you.”  
  
Changmin chuckles and runs a hand through his hair. “Maybe later.” He’s very aware that they have an audience and he meets Boa’s gaze over Yunho’s shoulder. Her eyes are wide and unfocused, a pink tinge on her cheeks as she watches them.  
  
Yunho whines and presses closer against him. His glass tilts, the liquid inside sloshing, and Changmin carefully plucks it out of his hand and puts it aside.  
  
“I think that’s enough. For both of you,” he says. He holds his hand out and Boa rises obediently and takes it. Changmin leads them to their room and Boa flops down on the bed, her hair and limbs slayed out across the sheets.  
  
“Kisses,” she says to the ceiling. Changmin blinks.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Birthday kisses. Everyone gave me a birthday kiss except you two.” She sits up and pouts at him. “I want my birthday kisses.”  
  
Yunho untangles himself from Changmin and tumbles down on the bed on top of her. Boa yelps as she’s crushed under him, her fists coming down on his back.  
  
“Get off me you giant!”  
  
Yunho mumbles something unintelligible into the sheets. Boa gives up trying to push him off and instead bites his shoulder, which makes Yunho roll off her with a yelp.  
  
“You bit me!” he cries. Now he’s pouting too, and Changmin tries to remember that they’re both actually older than him.  
  
Boa points an accusatory finger at him. “You didn’t give me a birthday kiss,” she says. Yunho blinks, then looks around at Changmin as if for permission. Changmin’s lips turn up at the corner and he shrugs.  
  
Yunho crawls over Boa and crushes their lips together. It’s pretty clumsy, and both of them are too busy giggling to do it properly, but still it makes something light inside Changmin. He knows they’ve crossed a line tonight that they can never uncross but he can’t find it within himself to be too bothered about it.  
  
He slides onto the bed with them and they both surface long enough to look at him. Yunho draws back and Changmin pulls Boa into his arms and kisses her. It’s soft and sure, a tender kiss to Yunho’s more enthusiastic one. She stills, her lips parting, her hands rising to cup his face.  
  
Yunho presses against his side and Changmin immediately breaks the kiss and turns to him. Their lips meet, sweet and familiar, and Yunho sighs in contentment. Changmin can taste the alcohol on his breath and knows this is as far as they’re going to go tonight; Yunho and Boa are both way too close to passing out. He takes Yunho’s lower lip between his teeth and tugs and Yunho murmurs into his mouth.  
  
Boa is lying back and watching them with hooded eyes. Yunho curls around her and buries his nose in her neck and she smiles and slides a hand in his hair.  
  
“I tried so hard to keep my distance,” she says softly. Her gaze meets Changmin’s. “I thought, what they have is perfect. There’s no way I’m getting between that. But I couldn’t stay away. You couldn’t stay away. . .”  
  
“No,” Changmin says, his own voice just as soft. “We couldn’t.”  
  
There’s a short pause. Yunho closes his eyes, on the verge of sleep.  
  
“I love you,” Boa whispers. “Both of you.”  
  
Changmin smiles and lies down on her other side.  
  
“I know,” he says. “I love you too.”  
  
“Mm, wuv you,” Yunho mumbles, already half-asleep. Their arms slide around her, pulling her closer, closer until the three of them fall asleep in a tangled mess.  
  
\- - -  
  
Changmin wakes late the next morning to the sound of Sora crying in the next room. He leaves Yunho and Boa snoring against each other and goes to attend his daughter. She stops crying the moment Changmin picks her up and he kisses her tears away with a smile.  
  
The other two still aren’t awake by the time he’s changed and fed Sora. Impatient, Changmin goes into their room and sets Sora down on the bed, where she immediately crawls on top of Yunho and thumps his chest, babbling happily. Yunho groans, wraps an arm around her and draws her down between him and Boa. Sora squeals as she’s shifted, then laughs as Boa kisses her sleepily.  
  
Changmin curls around Yunho from behind and kisses his cheek.  
  
“Wake up, sleepy,” he murmurs. Yunho forces his eyes open and groans again.  
  
“My head hurts,” he rasps. “Shouldn’t being a vampire exempt me from hangovers?”  
  
Boa laughs and sits up. She’s adorably sleep-rumpled, her hair sticking up everywhere.  
  
“Apparently not. But my werewolf metabolism totally does,” she smirks. Yunho glares at her.  
  
“You’re seriously not hung over?” he demands.  
  
“Nope,” she grins cheekily at him, dimple showing. Yunho grumbles but Changmin manages to drag him upright with kisses and promises of coffee. Boa scoops Sora into her arms and they head to the kitchen, where Yunho’s mood slowly improves as the smell of Changmin brewing fresh coffee fills the room.  
  
“Blood and coffee, the two greatest drinks in the world,” Yunho declared, nose buried in his mug.  
  
Boa wrinkles her nose. “Gross. So listen, it’s a full moon tonight – you guys want to come join the pack?”  
  
Changmin hums thoughtfully and exchanges a look with Yunho. It’s a Sunday and they don’t really have any other plans, but after the whirlwind that was yesterday he kind of just wants to spend the day alone with his family. Yunho smiles at him over the rim of his mug.  
  
“I think you should ditch the pack and spend the day with us instead,” he says to Boa. She laughs and rises to put Sora in her playpen.  
  
“That sounds lovely, but unfortunately I have responsibilities. It wouldn’t do for the pack to greet the full moon without their alpha.”  
  
Boa runs a hand through her hair and stretches. It makes her shirt ride up, exposing a strip of flat stomach, and Changmin’s eyes involuntarily follow the action. It’s strange – he’s never wanted a woman before. But then again Boa is no mere woman.  
  
She sees him watching and drops her arms with a grin.  
  
“Hoyoung asked me, you know,” she says. “What exactly my relationship with you two is.”  
  
“He wants you,” Changmin says, keeping his voice casual.  
  
“I know,” Boa sighs. “It makes for some awkward pack meetings, especially now that he knows I don’t want him.”  
  
There’s a short silence. Their eyes meet and a faint pink tinge crawls up Boa’s cheeks.  
  
“So what did you tell him?” Yunho asks. “About our relationship I mean.”  
  
Boa draws invisible patterns onto the countertop and sighs. “I told him I love you. That’s all.” She looks up at them. “I don’t have any expectations from this relationship. I know it’s unorthodox and that I’m intruding – ”  
  
“You’re not intruding,” Changmin interrupts. “You’re here right now because we want you here.”  
  
Boa’s face softens. It’s odd to see her look vulnerable; she normally projects such an aura of strength and self-confidence. It reminds him of the night they met and how much of an anomaly it had been to catch her in that moment of defenselessness. He doesn’t know if she would’ve opened up to them if they’d met under more normal circumstances.  
  
Yunho glances at him, then reaches over and slides an arm around Boa’s waist and pulls her towards himself. Their lips meet, just a soft, dry press, and it’s sweeter than last night because this time they’re both sober. Changmin comes around the counter and when they break apart he tilts her chin up and kisses her hard and deep.  
  
Both kisses are brief but they shudder through all three of them with a fierce intensity. Eventually Boa pulls away with a sigh.  
  
“I should go,” she says softly. She goes over to say goodbye Sora. She’s busy chewing on a toy and not paying any attention to them, but she looks up as Boa appears beside her playpen.  
  
“Bo,” she says. A grin lights Boa’s face and she nuzzles against her cheek.  
  
“Bye baby,” she says before kissing her and straightening. She pauses in the doorway and meets Changmin’s eye.  
  
“I’ll come by later tonight?”  
  
Changmin smiles. “It’s your house.”  
  
Boa chuckles and leaves with a lift of her hand.  
  
Changmin sighs and runs a hand through Yunho’s hair, enjoying the silky slide of dark strands through his fingers. Yunho lifts his head and arches up into him.  
  
“Feeling better?” Changmin asks.  
  
“Mm, much,” Yunho smiles. Changmin glances behind them; Sora has started teething recently and is going to town on a rubber ring, her eyes crossed in concentration and drool leaking everywhere. He shakes his head and smiles.  
  
“Hey, I know what we should do today,” Yunho says suddenly. “Let’s visit the hot spring.”  
  
They had discovered a natural hot spring located deep in the forest not far from their cottage. It was in a nice, secluded little area that nobody else ever ventured into, and as the months got colder it became a favorite spot for them to visit, sometimes alone, sometimes with Boa and other friends. Changmin nods eagerly in agreement; but first he declares that they need to clean the house. There’s various debris lying around from the party, and Yunho groans but obeys.  
  
By the time they’re done it’s late afternoon, but that makes little difference; the spring is even better in the twilight. They put Sora in her cute pink bathing suit, pack her things and a change of clothes and head off.  
  
It’s almost sunset when they get to the spring and a little breeze rustles through the trees. The spring is surrounded by rocks and a small waterfall that feeds fresh water into the pool. It’s almost 2 meters deep on one end and several meters wide, and steam rises from the surface of the water as it’s heated from below. Changmin strips out of his clothes until he’s wearing only swimming trunks and takes a running leap into it. He hears Sora shriek as water laps over the rocks around the edge and surfaces with a grin, flipping his hair out of his eyes. He dog paddles over to her and Yunho and holds his arms out.  
  
Yunho transfers Sora to him and Changmin sinks back towards the center of the spring with her clinging to his neck. She’s a little scared of the water at first, but as the warmth of it splashes her she relaxes and squirms in his arms. Given half the chance Changmin is certain she would leap into the water on her own and he takes a firm hold of her and tuts in warning. He watches Yunho strip down to his swimming trunks and enter the water with a bit more decorum. He swims over and slides his arms around them and Changmin laughs as Sora gets squashed between them and squeals in protest.  
  
The sun sets slowly around them and the full moon rises in its place. The last time they had visited the spring they had strung up lights on the dry rocks and left them there; after all nobody else ever came out here. Changmin gives Sora to Yunho and goes to turn them on. There aren’t many and they only light about half the spring, but with supernatural vision and moonlight to aid they can see just fine. Yunho holds Sora around the middle and lets her splash in the water and Changmin watches them with a smile. Sometimes he can’t believe how lucky he got; he thinks back to his life before Yunho stumbled into it and it seems incredibly bleak in comparison.  
  
A wolf howls in the distance and all three of them turn their heads towards the sound.  
  
“Bo,” Sora says. Changmin marvels at her ability to connect the sound of the wolf to Boa, despite having only seen her in wolf form a few times.  
  
Yunho smiles. “Yes, Boa,” he says. He meets Changmin’s eye.  
  
“The pack must be gathering,” Changmin says, and Yunho nods.  
  
A cold breeze picks up and ruffles their hair. Sora shivers, and Yunho lowers her a little more into the warmth of the water. They take turns helping her paddle around the pool, and make a little raft with their arms and let her lie on it, and her laughter makes them laugh. At some point there are more wolf howls but they’re not paying attention, content in their little bubble of happiness.  
  
Eventually Sora grows tired and starts clinging to them instead of splashing around and they know she must be hungry. They clamber out and Changmin lays down a blanket while Yunho dries her and dresses her in warm clothes. They’re so used to taking care of her by now that the process has become seamless; they’d brought a full bottle of milk with them so once she’s bundled up and warm Yunho lays her down on the blanket and raises it to her mouth. She’s learnt to hold the bottle herself and immediately takes it from him, suckling enthusiastically. Yunho smiles and strokes her cheek and she makes a muffled sound and blinks up at him.  
  
“I want to swim around a bit more,” Changmin says. Yunho smiles up at him.  
  
“Go on, I’ll watch her.”  
  
He sinks back into the water and strikes out, doing a few quick laps of the spring. Changmin has always been a good swimmer; growing up it was one of the few times when he didn’t feel awkward about his long limbs, and since becoming a vampire he’s only becoming better. The spring closes in over his head as he comes to a stop at the far end of the pool and sinks down, relaxed in the warm embrace of the water.  
  
Sora is asleep before she even finishes her milk, long eyelashes fanned out against her cheeks. Yunho carefully plucks the drooping bottle out of her hand, then dabs at her mouth with a wet cloth. She jerks and suckles at empty air a couple of times before dropping off into sleep again. Yunho finds a small travel pillow and a second blanket in her baby bag, tucks her in and slowly gets to his feet.  
  
The water has cooled on his skin in the interim and he shivers a little in the cold night air. It’s quiet and still all around them now and Changmin swims up to the edge of the pool, smiles up at him and holds out his hand.  
  
Yunho slips into the water beside him and they wrap around each other, warm skin against skin. They stay on the lit, shallow end of the pool, near Sora. Fireflies dance on the edge of the trees. Changmin kisses Yunho, his hands sweeping up the slope of his back under the water.  
  
“I think I promised to let you bite me last night,” Changmin murmurs. Yunho laughs and buries his face in his neck.  
  
“Was I drunk at the time?”  
  
“Very.”  
  
“You smell so good when I’m drunk.” Yunho inhales and makes a pleased rumble deep in his chest. “Of course, you always smell good.”  
  
Changmin smiles and curls a hand in his wet hair, silently nudging Yunho’s mouth towards his throat. Yunho’s tongue flicks out to taste him, gathering the fresh tang of water and Changmin’s skin and the deeper, underlying promise of his blood. His fangs lengthen and sink lovingly into his neck.  
  
Changmin moans. It’s soft and low but Yunho feels it shudder through every corner of his being. He wraps his arms around him and pulls him closer, eyes fluttering in ecstasy as the taste of fresh blood floods his mouth. The bloodlust suppressant shots ensure that they don't have any real need for it, but there’s no denying the heady pleasure that only drinking from a living source brings. Heat spills between them, heat and blood, and Changmin trembles in his arms. Yunho raises his head and pants against his lips.  
  
“Drink from me baby – please – ”  
  
Changmin growls low in his throat. It’s all the invitation he needs; he bites down into Yunho’s neck and Yunho cries out, his voice muffled as he goes back to sucking on Changmin’s neck. They feed from each other, hands clutching and holding tight, the sweet, copper tang of blood thick on their tongues, the soft sounds of suckling filling the air around them. Changmin doesn’t think there’s any feeling in the world more perfect than this; nothing gives him a greater sense of completion than drinking from Yunho and having him drink from him in return.  
  
A twig cracks nearby and they draw apart, panting and dazed. Changmin shakes his head, trying to clear it of the buzz of blood, and it takes him a few seconds to register the sound of approaching footsteps. There’s a pause, then a man steps into view around a tree. He’s wearing a military grade uniform and on his chest is the silver badge of the Department of Disease and Pest Control.  
  
Yunho moves like lightening. He’s out of the water and scooping Sora into his arms before the man can even blink. Changmin follows him out more slowly and straightens as the Department man quickly draws a gun and points it at them.  
  
“Freeze!” he yells.  
  
They stare each other down. There’s no doubt in Changmin’s mind that he’s seen them drinking from each other, and that his gun will contain photovoltaic bullets. His heart beats a tattoo of panic, his mind blank at the sheer impossibility of what’s happening.  
  
“Show your tags,” the man says. His voice is hard like flint, his eyes and face blank of any emotion. Slowly, jerkily, Yunho turns and lifts the back of his hair. The man nods and trains his gun on Changmin.  
  
“Now you,” he says.  
  
Time shudders and slows. Changmin darts a look at Yunho; he’s frozen and wide-eyed, arms tight around Sora’s sleeping form.  
  
They’re trapped. They’re trapped more effectively than they’ve ever been trapped before. Changmin is completely defenseless and exposed, clad in only swimming shorts, and as the seconds tick by it becomes more and more obvious that he has no tag. The man’s hands tighten on his gun.  
  
“I said,” he growls. “Show me your tag.”  
  
Changmin takes a deep breath. He needs to say something soon, or die with a photovoltaic bullet burning him alive. And there’s only one way he can talk his way out of this: use his father’s name. But even then the chances seem slim. He holds his hands up placatingly.  
  
“Don’t shoot.”  
  
The man’s eyes narrow. “Rogue,” he hisses. On closer inspection he looks a little haggard, a smear of mud across his cheek and a red stain lingering on the corner of his sleeve. His finger tightens on the trigger.  
  
“You’ll regret it if you shoot me,” Changmin warns.  
  
“Oh yeah, why’s that?” the Department man snarls.  
  
“Because the President will have your head for killing his only son.”  
  
His statement doesn’t have the desired effect; the man blinks for a second, surprised, then throws his head back and laughs.  
  
“Hah, good one! You expect me to believe the President has a rogue vampire for a son? Do you know  _anything_  about President Shim?”  
  
Changmin tries not to let panic take him. “I’m telling the truth!” he snarls.  
  
“The word of a rogue means nothing,” the Department man says. “You’d say anything to save your skin right now. And besides,” He takes aim, finger slowly starting to squeeze the trigger. “President Shim’s days in office are numbered.”  
  
Changmin tenses, ready to dodge his bullet, but he knows it’s no use; this is the end, he can sense it, and his only comfort is that at least Yunho and Sora are safe. He hears Yunho make a small, panicked sound beside him and thinks fiercely  _I love you, I love you, don’t do anything stupid._  
  
“No. . .” the word whispers out of Yunho’s mouth in a soft moan.  
  
Something flashes behind the Department man. There’s the quick, brief pad of paws, then a huge silver wolf bursts out from behind a tree and leaps at him. Boa’s aim is true; she gets him right in the jugular and rips his throat out. Blood sprays everywhere, across her fur and the leaves on the ground as the Department man falls beneath her and screams and screams. The wolf ravages him with an insane fury until he goes still beneath her and Changmin stumbles back, his arm out towards Yunho, who’s watching the carnage with wide-eyed horror. Boa raises her head from the remains of her victim and snarls at them, and there’s so much anger in her gaze it scares even them. They start to back away just as Hoyoung’s russet brown wolf emerges into the clearing.  
  
The moment Boa sees him she attacks. Snarls and the sound of snapping jaws fill the air. Boa is stronger, but Hoyoung is fast; he dodges her attacks until she grows frustrated, grabs him by the scruff of his neck and flings him against a tree. He hits it with a sickening  _crack_  and rolls to his feet dazedly, whimpering low in his throat. Boa barely gives him time to recover before she has him in her jaws again and is dragging him across the clearing.  
  
“Changmin, come on,” Yunho says urgently in his ear. Changmin jolts out of the daze of the fight and looks around at him. “We need to get out of here,” Yunho tugs on his sleeve.  
  
“But Boa – ” he starts.  
  
“Is winning this fight, in case you haven’t noticed. Come on!”  
  
They grab their things and run, the sound of the wolves fading behind them. Changmin’s mind whirls with questions. Something’s happened – something to do with the pack, something between Boa, Hoyoung and quite possibly the Department. They’ve never seen a Department officer wandering this deep in the forest before, let alone been cornered so helplessly by one.  
  
They get back to the cottage and lock every door and window. Somewhat miraculously, Sora has slept through the whole thing. Yunho tucks her into her cot, then comes back into the living room and clutches at Changmin, the reality of what had almost just happened crashing down on them.  
  
“Fuck – I was so scared, I thought I was going to lose you – ” Yunho breathes.  
  
“I know,” Changmin trembles in his hold as shock slowly catches up with him. “I know – ”  
  
They kiss, harsh and deep, terror clawing at their skins. Something’s happening deep in the forest tonight. The howls they had heard earlier suddenly take on a more sinister feeling. He thinks of Boa, of the anger in her wolf eyes, and shudders in fear.  
  
It takes them several long minutes before they can let go of each other. Eventually they draw apart, and the shock gives way to a new feeling: anxiety. Changmin can see the same worry reflected in Yunho’s eyes that he knows must be in his own, worry for Boa and the pack, worry about not knowing what’s going on. He sinks onto their couch and Yunho goes over to the window and stares into the darkness beyond.  
  
An indefinable amount of time passes before Yunho abruptly jerks away from the window.  
  
“She’s here,” he says. He strides to the door and flings it open to let Boa into the house. She’s breathing hard and covered in dirt. Three deep scratches mar her upper arm.  
  
“What happened?” Changmin asks immediately. Boa meets his gaze blankly.  
  
“There was a raid at the cave,” she says. Her voice is distant, her eyes dark with pain. “A Department raid. The man who stumbled across you was returning from it. We’ve been compromised – half the pack is dead – ”  
  
Cold with shock, Changmin slowly licks his lips.  
  
“How – ” he whispers.  
  
“I don’t know. But when it happened my only beta who wasn’t there was Hoyoung.”  
  
A shudder of understanding goes through him; but it seems unthinkable that Hoyoung could have betrayed them. Things had been strained between them lately but to go this far. . .  
  
There’s a pounding on the door and all three of them tense.  
  
“Boa!” Hoyoung voice filters through from outside. “Boa, I know you’re in there! Just listen to me – ”  
  
Boa bares her teeth and yanks the door open. He looks a lot worse than her – bruised, limping and with scratches on his face and chest, his glasses nowhere to be seen. It’s clear that Boa was not kind to him in their fight. He collapses to his knees on the threshold of the cottage and she stares down at him with cold rage.  
  
“Where were you?” she whispers.  
  
“It’s all my fault,” Hoyoung groans. His hair hangs in his battered face, concealing one swollen eye.  
  
“Where were you?!” Boa snarls. “You’re my first beta! Where were you when the pack was getting slaughtered around me? Tell me the truth, did you sell us out to the Department?”  
  
Hoyoung raises his head and meets her gaze. “Yes,” he whispers, voice bleak.  
  
Boa plants a boot in the middle of his chest and pushes him onto his back. “I should have killed you when I had the chance,” she hisses down at him.  
  
“It was a mistake!” Hoyoung howls. “I was so upset – last night, when I saw that you were staying here, I just – I couldn’t stand it! I ended up at the town pub after the party and I was just so drunk, and this woman cozied up to me and she kept asking what happens around here on the full moon and I – I told her everything. It just spilled out – I didn’t see the Department van parked on the road – ”  
  
“Unbelievable,” Boa breathes. “Un – fucking – believable.”  
  
“When I woke up today and realised what I’d done – I panicked. I went looking for her, and then you, but by the time I got to the cave it was too late – ”  
  
Boa takes her foot off his chest and backs away. “You cost 20 lives tonight,” she says softly. “Julie’s dead. The young fledgling you recruited last week, Jongin? Dead. They’re all dead, and their lives are on your head.”  
  
Hoyoung shudders and closes his eyes. He looks broken, completely and utterly broken. Changmin and Yunho are frozen, staring rapt at the scene unfolding before them.  
  
Boa takes a deep breath. For one wild second Changmin thinks she really is going to kill Hoyoung. Then, slowly, she reaches a hand down to Hoyoung’s prone form. He stares at it for a second, uncomprehending, then grasps it and stumbles to his feet.  
  
“You’re a fool, Hoyoung,” Boa says. “But you’re my pack, and I don’t have a lot of that left. I still need you if we’re going to restore what we lost tonight.”  
  
He stares at her, speechless in the face of her mercy. “I’ll do anything,” Hoyoung breathes.  
  
Boa nods, and in that moment Changmin knows why she’s alpha, why there’s nobody else in the pack who can lead them like she can, with strength and compassion in equal measure. She’s a leader is in her blood, in her bones.  
  
“Go,” she says. “The rest of the pack is waiting at the northern mountain pass. I’ll meet you there.”  
  
Hoyoung nods and is gone in a rustle of brown fur.  
  
Boa turns to them with a sigh and all the steel melts out of her stance and suddenly she just looks tired and incredibly sad. Changmin draws her close and folds her in his arms and Yunho strokes a hand through her hair and they stay like for a few minutes, just breathing in the comforting scent of each other.  
  
“I have to leave here,” Boa says eventually. She lifts her head from Changmin’s chest and looks at them. “This area is no longer safe for the pack and my first loyalty must be to them.”  
  
“And us?” Yunho says. “What about your loyalty to us?”  
  
Pain flashes across her face. She reaches up to cup his face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry my darlings. I’d ask you to come with me but –” she glances towards Sora’s room. “A pack on the run is no place for a child.”  
  
“It’s not fair,” Changmin breathes. “We’ve barely had any time with you – it’s too soon – ”  
  
Boa sighs and slowly extracts herself from his arms. She goes over to Sora’s cot and gazes down at her sleeping face, then reaches inside her shirt and withdraws a necklace she keeps tucked inside. It’s made of leather with a canine tooth pendant. Complex patterns swirl around the tooth, delicate and exquisite. Boa pulls it off her neck and places it around Sora’s.  
  
“This is the best I can do for you now,” she says. “This pendant is the symbol of an alpha, a rare and prized possession. Any wolf that sees it, tagged or rogue, will know you to be a friend.”  
  
She leans down and kisses Sora’s cheek before turning to them.  
  
“Where will you go?” Yunho asks.  
  
“I’m not sure yet. Somewhere far away from here – maybe across the border. . .”  
  
Boa trails off. There’s a moment where none of them know what to do, then they move towards each other at the same time. Her breath hitches as their arms go around her, Changmin behind, Yunho in front.  
  
“Take care of our little girl,” she whispers. “Take care of each other – ”  
  
“Boa – ” Yunho starts.  
  
“Don’t,” she shakes her head. “Don’t say anything, or it’ll just make this harder.”  
  
She kisses first him, then Changmin, and it’s nothing like the sweet, playful kisses they shared that morning. It’s a hard, final sort of kiss. A goodbye kiss.  
  
“I love you,” Boa whispers. “Don’t forget that.”  
  
And then she’s gone.

 


	20. Chapter 20

  
Boa’s loss hits them hard. They don’t register it at first, but after a few days pass and there’s no sign of her dropping by unannounced, no sound of her singing Sora to sleep, they start to feel the pain of her absence. Sora seems oblivious to her loss at first, but after a week she starts spending day after day staring at the door from her playpen, her head shooting up at every sound from outside.  
  
“Bo,” she says to every rustle in the trees, every bird call from outside. Changmin sighs and picks her up and Sora lays her head on his shoulder.  
  
“She’s gone baby,” he says softly. “She’s not coming back.”  
  
“Bo,” Sora repeats, sad brown eyes on the door.  
  
They try to keep it going without her but that proves more difficult than expected. Changmin goes in to work the day after Boa leaves and his new supervisor wastes no time in sitting him down and telling him very calmly but bluntly that after the recent Department raid it is no longer possible for them to employ a rogue. The dependence of his employment on Boa becomes painfully clear, and Changmin finds himself mired in circular thoughts of  _what if she hadn’t left, would they still have fired me sooner or later, what if I hadn’t asked Yunho to turn me, what if we’d gone with Boa. . ._  
  
His only comfort is that at least Yunho still has a job, and that they still have each other; though as the days pass that slowly becomes small comfort, when it becomes clear that they have  _only_  each other. Without Boa, without the pack, the town that had been their refuge becomes cold and uninviting. The cottage that was their sanctuary suddenly feels like a cage, trapping them in loneliness. The forest is too quiet around them, robbed of the occasional sounds of prowling wolves. They are no werewolves, but they had become as much part of the pack as Boa was part of them, and losing them so suddenly feels like having family ripped away from them.  
  
Winter sets in, harsher and colder than expected as though to compound their creeping depression. To top it all off Sora catches a vicious cold; she’s been a healthy baby thus far, almost unnaturally so, but nursing her feverish little body reminds them that part of her is still painfully human. They take turns staying up with her at night, feeding her medicines and desperately trying to soothe her when she cries herself hoarse. Around the third day she develops a cough that rattles through her tiny frame and is almost physically painful for them to hear, and Changmin tries not to let anxiety crush him.  
  
Yunho finds him late one afternoon when Changmin is staring out the living room window at the sunset filtering through the trees. He looks rumpled and careworn, exhausted from spending hours trying to soothe Sora into sleep; they’ve been keeping her in their bed since she got sick and Changmin can see her through the open door of their room, ensconced between their pillows. Yunho comes to stand beside him at the window and Changmin slides an arm around his waist and pulls him close. Yunho’s forehead comes to rest against the hollow of his throat, his hand rising to curl in Changmin’s shirt. He sighs.  
  
“Changmin,” he says softly. “We can’t do this alone. It’s too hard – I can’t go on like this anymore.”  
  
Changmin draws back slightly and thumbs his cheek. “What would you have me do?” he asks.  
  
Yunho looks away. “Something you won’t like.”  
  
“I’d do anything for you Yunho, you know that.”  
  
Yunho sighs and meets his gaze again. “I want you to ask your parents for help,” he says.  
  
Changmin’s expression shutters. He lets go of him and turns away. “No,” he says flatly.  
  
“Changmin, please. Put your pride away for a moment and just listen to me. Sora deserves better than this half life of hiding and running away. What are you going to do now that you can no longer work here? What happens when she gets a little older, when she has to start going to school? She’s a half-breed Changmin, and you’re a rogue. We need protection, the sort of protection that only your parents can give us.”  
  
Changmin squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head. “Your family – ” he starts, but Yunho cuts him off with a bitter laugh.  
  
“My family are poor village folk. They would happily take us in, but they can’t protect us any better than we can protect ourselves. We need the help of someone powerful, and frankly I – ” Yunho swallows and gathers Changmin’s hands in his. “I’m tired Changmin. I want the support of a family, even if it’s one as messed up as yours. The pack is gone and we have nobody else around here. Who else can we turn to?”  
  
Changmin sighs. It breaks his heart to see Yunho reduced to pleading with him like this, but it breaks him more to think of asking his parents for help and being turned away.  
  
“You don’t understand,” he whispers. “You don’t know them – they’ll say no, they won’t want anything to do with us –”  
  
“I don’t believe that,” Yunho says. “I don’t believe for a second that they wouldn’t want anything to do with their granddaughter, even if she is a half-breed. You only see them through the filter of your hurt, of your history with them, but they are not cruel people, I know they’re not – ”  
  
“I haven’t seen them in over a year,” Changmin says, voice strained. A brief smile flickers across Yunho’s lips.  
  
“There’s no expiration date on parenthood my love. They are your parents regardless of whether you saw them yesterday or ten years ago – and they will help you if you ask them for it. Boa thought so too and she’s never steered us wrong.”  
  
Changmin feels caged, trapped by his own insecurities and a web of Yunho’s pleas. He scowls and hunches in on himself.  
  
“Are you just saying this because Boa wanted it or because you think it’s the right thing to do?” he grumbles. Yunho tilts his chin up so their eyes meet.  
  
“I’m saying this because Boa wanted it,” he says softly. “ _And_  it’s the right thing to do.”  
  
But Changmin just keeps shaking his head. “I can’t do it,” he says. “When I left that house I promised myself I’d never ask my parents for anything ever again. Don’t make me break that promise.”  
  
“I thought you said you’d do anything for me.”  
  
“Anything but this.”  
  
“Then it’s not anything.”  
  
Yunho draws away and regards him quietly, and Changmin can sense the disappointment in his gaze. He looks away, letting the silence stretch out between them before Yunho sighs and runs a hand through his hair.  
  
“I can’t make you do this against your will, nor do I want to. Just – promise me you’ll think about it?”  
  
Changmin can’t deny him this one small request, not with those warm kitten eyes fixed on him so imploringly. “I’ll think about it,” he promises, and Yunho smiles and kisses him.  
  
Sora wakes up crying before dawn the next morning. They’ve had to get up to give her medicine every two hours and Yunho has just dropped off, but he jerks awake as her cries dissolve into a coughing fit.  
  
“Sor – ” he starts dazedly, but Changmin is there before him. He’s been up for hours, plagued by indecision and circular, hopeless thoughts. He picks Sora up and cradles her against his shoulder.  
  
“It’s okay, I’ve got her. Sleep.”  
  
“Chamin,” Yunho mumbles and closes his eyes again.  
  
Changmin takes Sora out into the living room and feeds her cough syrup before getting her milk ready. The syrup makes her drowsy and she dozes against his shoulder, only stirring when he raises the bottle to her mouth. He settles in the windowseat and watches her drink as sunrise spreads golden rays through the trees.  
  
The thing that’s really stopping Changmin from asking his parents for help, more than the fear that they’ll refuse, is that he doesn’t want his daughter to grow up the way he did. He’d had a privileged but lonely childhood, and no amount of toys in the world could change the fact that the only thing he’d ever really wanted was his parents’ love and attention, attention that they had been too busy to give him. He’d much rather be poor and happy than rich and unhappy, and he has the nagging feeling that bringing his parents into the equation might change that.  
  
 _But Sora is not like you,_  a voice whispers in the back of his mind.  _She has you and Yunho, and nothing your parents do can ever change that._  
  
Changmin sighs and gazes down at Sora. She’s a warm, heavy weight in his arms, her cheeks flushed, her nose red from being wiped so often. He thinks of the future they had envisioned for her, the role he had wanted Boa to play in her life of guide and protector. But Boa is gone, and it might be time to let someone else take her place.  
  
When Yunho wakes several hours later Changmin is sitting on the couch turning his phone over and over in his hands. Sora is in her cot, sleeping soundly for the first time in days. He looks up as Yunho settles beside him and runs a hand through sleep-mussed hair.  
  
“I called my mother,” Changmin says quietly. “She wants to have dinner with us tomorrow night.”  
  
Yunho drops his hand and stares at him. His mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Changmin fixes him with a serious look.  
  
“I just want to make one thing clear. I still think this is a bad idea, but I did it because you asked me to and because I think you’re right in one respect: Sora deserves better than this. And if my parents can give her that then I’m willing to swallow my pride for her sake.”  
  
Yunho smiles and cups Changmin’s face in his hands.  
  
“You are a great man Shim Changmin, I hope you know that,” he says fondly.  
  
Changmin flushes, equal parts embarrassed and pleased by the frankness of Yunho’s statement, and Yunho pulls him into his arms and kisses him soft and sweet.  
  
\- - -  
  
The Shim manor looks as large and foreboding as ever. They pull up to the driveway slowly, tired from the long drive; it’s taken them most of the day to get here, their cottage being located deep in the countryside and the manor in the heart of the city. Sora was asleep earlier but she’s awake now, bright-eyed and somewhat recovered from her flu.  
  
It’s been 18 months since Changmin last saw his parents’ home. He stares up at the manor’s visage, then across at Yunho, and Yunho gives him a reassuring smile. They park the car in the driveway and get out, and Yunho lifts Sora into his arms as Changmin goes to ring the doorbell.  
  
A maid he doesn’t recognise opens the door and Changmin blinks at her, surprised.  
  
“Where’s Jiyul?” he blurts out. The maid looks startled.  
  
“She’s in the kitchens sir. I can call for her – ”  
  
“No, it’s fine,” Changmin waves his hand dismissively and steps into the house. The new maid looks hesitant.  
  
“Sir, you are. . .?” she trails off inquiringly.  
  
Changmin gives her a blank look. “I’m Shim Changmin.” Surely he hasn’t been away for so long that nobody around here even remembers him?  
  
The maid gives a small squeak of understanding. “Oh, of course! We’ve been expecting you – your mother is in the second floor drawing room, it’s – ”  
  
“I know where it is, thanks,” Changmin says tersely.  
  
“Changmin, be nice,” Yunho says from behind him. His appearance seems to calm the poor maid somewhat, perhaps because of the reassuring combination of his smile and the baby in his arms. “She’s just trying to do her job.”  
  
“Her job should include knowing who the members of the Shim family are,” Changmin grumbles, but he gives the maid an apologetic smile as they head up the stairs. After all it’s not her fault being back here puts him on edge.  
  
Sora stares at the giant crystal chandelier in the foyer, fascinated by the light glinting off its thousands of facets. She points to it and babbles something unintelligible and Yunho smiles at her as he climbs the stairs.  
  
“Pretty, isn’t it?” he coos, nuzzling her cheek. “Though not as pretty as you.”  
  
Sora laughs and Yunho pauses at the top of the landing to let her admire the chandelier a little longer.  
  
Changmin strides on ahead, only peripherally aware of them. His focus is on the second floor drawing room and the woman sitting within. She rises to greet him and a smile of pure happiness lights her face.  
  
“Mother,” Changmin breathes. He’s barely admitted it to himself, but he’s missed her. Something about having a child of his own has given him a grudging appreciation for his parents, infuriating though they may be.  
  
“Hello darling,” she moves towards him and Changmin finds himself returning her smile, so open and genuine in her pleasure at seeing him.  
  
He knows the moment she spots his fangs. Her smile freezes and slowly drops off her face entirely. She takes hold of his chin and pushes his lip up slightly, eyes widening in shock at the glimmer of fangs that peak out.  
  
“Who did this to you?” she whispers.  
  
Changmin sighs. He hadn’t told her much over the phone, just that he had a matter of grave importance to discuss with them. He tugs her hands away gently.  
  
“Just give me a moment and I’ll explain everything.”  
  
He can sense Yunho enter behind him. Mrs Shim’s eyes flicker to him, her expression darkening briefly with accusation – then pausing as she registers the baby in his arms. She blinks, her hands falling slowly to her sides as Changmin moves away from her and takes Sora from Yunho.  
  
“Mother, this is Sora,” Changmin says. “She’s my daughter. Mine and Yunho’s.”  
  
Mrs Shim stares at him, then her eyes drop and stare at the baby.  
  
“Your – ” she starts, voice faint. “But how. . .?”  
  
Despite having asked the question she doesn’t wait for him to give an answer. Her hands reach out, almost automatically, and Changmin lets her take Sora into her arms.  
  
Sora reaches immediately for the diamond necklace around her grandmother’s neck, attracted by its glimmer. Mrs Shim tuts softly and pries her fingers off it, and Sora makes a surprised sound and looks up at her. Their hands curl together, Sora’s chubby little fingers trapped in Mrs Shim’s long and elegant ones, and Mrs Shim lets out a breath.  
  
“Oh, Changmin,” she whispers. “She’s beautiful.”  
  
Something melts inside Changmin, some hard, defensive casing he’d constructed around his heart in case this meeting went all wrong. He glances at Yunho and sees him watching them with a small smile on his face. Changmin reaches out and takes his hand and they sit down side-by-side on the chaise. His mother takes the armchair beside them with Sora in her lap. She’s moved on to being fascinated by the beading on her grandmother’s sweater, tiny fingers plucking at the silver and gold swirls. Mrs Shim lets her, her fingers stroking one plump cheek. When she looks up again there’s some mixture of pain and wonder in her eyes.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks. Changmin swallows. He opens his mouth to reply, but before he can say anything the commanding figure of President Shim appears in the doorway and he loses his train of thought. Changmin gets to feet and Yunho rise with him.  
  
“Father,” he says. Mr Shim inclines his head towards him in greeting.  
  
“Changmin,” he replies. His eyes flicker to Yunho and Changmin lifts his chin.  
  
“Father, this is Yunho,” he introduces him. “My partner.”  
  
There’s a tense pause as Mr Shim regards Yunho with those cool blue eyes. Then Yunho smiles and reaches his hand out.  
  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you sir,” he says politely. For a second Mr Shim simply stares at the proffered hand, and Changmin starts to worry that he won’t take it. He’ll walk out if his father insults Yunho thus, dinner be damned –  
  
Mr Shim grasps Yunho’s hand and shakes it, his expression clearing when he encounters a strong and confident grip in stark contrast to the sunny smile on Yunho’s face. He’d always said that you could judge a man’s character from his handshake, and clearly Yunho’s passes the test.  
  
It’s only after they’re seated again that Mr Shim notices the baby in his wife’s lap. He blinks, brow furrowing in confusion, and Mrs Shim smiles up at him.  
  
“This is Sora,” she says. “Changmin’s daughter.”  
  
Mr Shim’s mouth opens in surprise. He looks at Changmin, then at Sora, and for the first time in his life Changmin witnesses his father at a loss for words. Mrs Shim smiles and holds Sora up for him.  
  
“Go on,” she says. “Hold your granddaughter.”  
  
He takes her gingerly, carefully, as though he’s afraid he’ll drop her. Sora blinks up at her grandfather, confused by all these new faces, and he blinks back at her in mutual perplexity. Then she yawns and buries her head in his chest and Mr Shim’s arms tighten around her in surprise.  
  
“She’s tired,” he says, sinking into a nearby armchair.  
  
“We had a pretty long drive here,” Yunho says apologetically. “I can take her if you like – ” He starts to rise but Mr Shim shakes his head.  
  
“No – it’s fine,” he says, despite the fact that Sora has drooled on his impeccable cashmere vest. He gazes down at her silky little head and there’s a look on his face that Changmin’s never seen before, a soft, marvelling sort of look. Then he clears his throat and raises his head. “I think you owe us a rather long explanation,” his father says quietly.  
  
Changmin takes a deep breath. He feels the warm pressure of Yunho’s hand at the small of his back and it gives him strength.  
  
He tells them as much as he can, how it all started with the rogue coven kidnapping Yunho and ended with them fleeing the city. He tells them where they’ve been staying since then, leaving out only mention of Boa and the pack, partly because it feels too personal and partly because the rogue issue is a sensitive enough topic between them already. His parents listen with admirable composure, only interrupting once or twice to ask clarifying questions, though when Changmin describes his decision to ask Yunho to turn him his mother puts a hand over her mouth and closes her eyes briefly. It pains him to see her horror at his transformation but he soldiers on, before eventually stuttering to a halt towards the end of the story. He hesitates and exchanges a glance with Yunho. He can’t tell them that Boa leaving them was the catalyst for seeking their support now, and any other reason seems weak.  
  
In the silence caused by his indecision Mr Shim speaks. “So,” he says. “After all this time, you have come to here at last to. . .ask our help?”  
  
Changmin swallows. “Yes.”  
  
“Why now?” his father asks.  
  
“I asked him to,” Yunho says. “For Sora’s sake, and his own. It’s become too dangerous for rogues lately, even out in the countryside. There was a Department raid in town recently and – ” Yunho pauses and swallows. “It scared us. It made us realise how vulnerable we are, out there on our own.”  
  
“You are vulnerable indeed,” Mr Shim murmurs. Sora has fallen asleep in his lap and he strokes her back absently. “It’s a wonder you survived on your own so long.”  
  
There’s a knowing inflection to his voice and Changmin grimaces. So much for leaving parts of the story out. “We had help,” he admits. “From friends we made in town.”  
  
“And where might those friends be now?” his mother asks. Changmin fixes her with a neutral look.  
  
“We told you. There was a raid.”  
  
A delicate pause follows this statement.  
  
“So they were rogues, these friends of yours,” Mr Shim says.  
  
“I’m a rogue father,” Changmin says flatly. “I think it’s about time you revised your opinion of us. Some might choose it but many are rogues because they have no other option. They are fledglings or runaways and they need help, but instead the Department hunts them down and kills them like animals.”  
  
Mr Shim frowns. “What do you mean? The Department is not authorized to kill rogues who don’t fight back.”  
  
Changmin stares at him. “You can’t not know what’s been happening.”  
  
His father sighs and looks away. “There have been. . .disturbing reports lately. Rumors of rogues being killed before they are even questioned. Rumors of corruption within the Department. There’s been talk about launching an independent investigation – ”  
  
“Whatever you’re thinking of doing about it isn’t happening fast enough,” Changmin interrupts him. “I’m telling you right now that these rumors are true. The Department is killing rogues without distinction or background checks. They almost killed me in the raid – even after I told them I was your son.”  
  
He meets his father’s eye. They don’t always agree on everything, but they have pride in common. Changmin knows the value of the Shim name and that to have it dismissed thus will anger his father just as it had angered and confused him. Mr Shim’s eyebrows snap together.  
  
“I see.” He shifts, and Sora jerks out of her doze. She squirms and starts to cry, and Yunho rises quickly and takes her from him. Mr Shim’s eyes follow them as Yunho tries to soothe her.  
  
“Shh it’s okay, I’m here,” he murmurs, but Sora thrashes in his arms and keeps crying. Yunho sighs. “I think she’s hungry. I could get her things from the car – ”  
  
“That won’t be necessary.” Mrs Shim rises and presses the intercom button near the door. “Please send Mrs Parks and two maids to the second floor drawing room,” she says into the speaker.  
  
Moments later Mrs Parks, Jiyul and a third maid appear in the doorway of the room. By then Sora has stopped crying and is sniffling against Yunho’s shoulder, a pout curling her lips. Mrs Parks has only to take one look at her to see the memory of Changmin’s childhood. Her hand comes up to her mouth as Changmin rises to greet her.  
  
“Oh, Minnie,” she breathes, uncaring that his parents are listening. “Is this – ”  
  
Changmin smiles. “This is my daughter Sora,” he says, taking her hand and drawing her forward so she can see her up close. Mrs Parks coos at her, but Sora whines and turns her face into Yunho’s neck. Undeterred, Mrs Parks smiles up at Yunho and pats his cheek.  
  
“How are you dear?” she asks.  
  
“I’m good,” Yunho smiles. “But I’m afraid Sora's in a pretty bad mood right now. She’s hungry. . .”  
  
“I can take care of that,” Mrs Parks holds out her arms and Yunho transfers a squirming Sora to her. She starts to cry again and reaches out for him but Mrs Parks rocks her and murmurs soothingly and slowly she calms in her hold. She heads to the door with Sora in tow and the other maids squeal in delight as they see her. Yunho hesitates, torn between going with them and staying to support Changmin.  
  
“Yunho,” Mrs Shim says. It’s the first time she’s called him by name, and Yunho turns to her with surprise. “You don't have to worry – Mrs Parks will see to it that she’s fed and cared for. We’ll need you here for this discussion.”  
  
Yunho exchanges a glance with Changmin, then nods and returns to his seat. Mrs Parks and the maids whisk Sora away, no doubt to pamper her with affection.  
  
Mr Shim clears his throat. “So, Changmin,” he says. “What exactly is it that you want us to help you with?”  
  
Changmin sits up straighter. This is it, the moment the whole night has been leading up to. The part where he swallows his pride and sinks or swims. He takes a deep breath.  
  
“I want you to guarantee Sora’s protection, to ensure that she gets the best upbringing possible and that her status as a crossbreed does not hinder her in any way throughout her life.” He pauses and swallows. “And. . .I need one of you to tag me.”  
  
His parents exchange a glance loaded with meaning and which manages to communicate at a level that only over 25 years of marriage can instill in a person. Changmin’s heart thumps in a terrified tattoo, waiting for them to say no, waiting for them to break his heart –  
  
His father nods. “Okay. We can do everything you want – but on one condition.”  
  
Changmin is momentarily speechless, so Yunho answers for him. “What is it?”  
  
“Sora must remain here.”  
  
Changmin is on his feet in an instant, his hands balling into fists. “No. No way. Sora is ours, you can’t take her away from us,  _you can’t_  – ”  
  
“Sit down,” his father orders, and Changmin sits abruptly at the authority in his tone. “We’re not proposing separating you from your daughter. However low your opinion of us might be even you must know we’re not that heartless.”  
  
Changmin shakes his head but says nothing, waiting for them to explain.  
  
“You must understand,” Mrs Shim speaks up. “That we cannot guarantee Sora’s protection if she’s living halfway across the country from us. She must be here, under our care and supervision, if we are to do what you ask. And of course you are welcome to move in with her.” Her eyes flicker to Yunho. “Both of you.”  
  
Changmin stares at them. Of all the answers his parents could have given him this is the last one he’d expected. Move back in to the manor, back to the house he had run away from? He gives Yunho an unsure look, but Yunho’s expression is hard to read. He squeezes Changmin’s hand, then looks up at his parents.  
  
“Can we have a moment to discuss this?”  
  
“Of course.” Mr and Mrs Shim get to their feet, and Changmin stares up at them and suddenly feels like a little boy again. He doesn’t particularly like the feeling. His father merely nods at them and leaves the room, but his mother lingers on the threshold.  
  
“I have to go see how dinner is progressing. Can you meet us in the dining room once you’ve made a decision?” she says.  
  
“Sure,” Yunho says. She nods and starts to leave, but Changmin finally finds his voice and speaks up.  
  
“Mother,” he calls. She pauses in the doorway and looks back. “I’m sorry,” Changmin says softly.  
  
Mrs Shim gives him a surprised look. “Whatever for my darling?”  
  
“For. . .this,” he indicates his fangs. “I know it must hurt you to see me this way.”  
  
Mrs Shim gazes at him for a long moment, her brown eyes soft and clear. “The only thing that hurts me is the thought of you in pain. Please don’t think that we have given you this ultimatum as some sort of punishment; it is intended for your protection, as per your request, and because Sora is our granddaughter, and that makes her our responsibility as much as yours.”  
  
Silence falls in her wake. Changmin glances at Yunho and licks his lips.  
  
“If you say I told you so I will hit you,” he says.  
  
Yunho grins and takes his hand, lacing their fingers together. “Okay I won’t. But just so you know I’ve never been so glad to be right.”  
  
Changmin sighs and looks down. It’s true that his parents have been far more accommodating than he expected, but their final demand doesn’t sit well with him. He’s fought hard to maintain his independence from them, and the thought of giving it up like this is difficult for him to accept. Yunho’s thumb sweeps over his knuckles, gently bringing Changmin’s attention back to him.  
  
“We don’t have to do this,” Yunho says. “We can collect Sora, bid them good night and walk out of here right now if that’s what you want.”  
  
Changmin doesn’t really like the sound of that either. He gives Yunho an unsure look. “What do you want to do Yunho? If you want it I’ll say yes.”  
  
Yunho hesitates. “Do you really want me to make this decision for us?”  
  
“Yes. I can’t be objective about this. Please baby, tell me what to do.”  
  
“I think we should do it,” Yunho says softly. “I think your parents are being incredibly generous with this offer. The manor is more than big enough to accommodate all of us, it’s not as though they’d be breathing down our necks all the time. Besides, after they tag you you’ll have to stay here for 6 months anyway. What’s a few years on top of that?”  
  
Changmin chews his lower lip. “And this will be good for Sora?”  
  
“Really good for her. Nobody will question the granddaughter of the president, crossbreed status or not. She’ll have access to the best schools in the country, to the sort of upbringing only money and power can buy.”  
  
“Yes,” Changmin says, a little bitterly. “The sort of upbringing I had.”  
  
Yunho gives him a sweet little smile. “And you turned out okay, didn’t you?”  
  
“I turned out okay despite my upbringing.”  
  
“I like to think you turned out okay because of it. Besides, you’re forgetting an important factor in Sora’s life that wasn’t in yours.”  
  
Changmin raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Oh yeah what’s that?”  
  
“Us,” Yunho says simply.  
  
Changmin knows he has him there. He meets Yunho’s gaze and sees affection and quiet determination in his warm black eyes. Yunho would not steer him wrong. It occurs to Changmin that all this time he had thought he was the one making the big decisions for them, when really he had just been following Yunho everywhere. He followed Yunho to the rogue coven’s den, he followed Yunho into hiding, he followed Yunho to the town and to Boa – and now he’ll follow Yunho to his parents’ house, back to where it all began for him.  
  
“Okay,” he says. “Let’s do it.”  
  
\- - -  
  
Later that night Changmin stands at the balcony of his room, staring out at the sprawling expanse of the manor gardens. They had decided to stay the night, to rest before the long drive back to the cottage and beginning the process of packing their things. Sora is fast asleep, ensconced happily in the cot they set up for her next to the bed. They’d had a real job prying her away from the maids, who were all so in love they wanted to keep her with them forever. Changmin thinks of the delight on Mrs Parks and Jiyul’s faces when he told them he was moving back in and smiles.  
  
His parents had been more restrained in their reaction to the decision, but he knew they were pleased. He had seen the way his mother held Sora, and the way his father’s eyes had followed her when Yunho took her from him. Even if his own relationship with them was strained it wasn’t right to deny them one with their granddaughter.  
  
Footsteps sound from behind him and Yunho steps onto the balcony. He slides his arms around Changmin, resting his chin on his shoulder, and Changmin relaxes back into his embrace.  
  
“So on a scale of 1 to the Department how scared should I be of living under your father’s roof right now?” Yunho asks.  
  
Changmin laughs, a full-bodied laugh that makes him shake in Yunho’s arms. “I think he likes you, actually. It’s my mother you should be worried about.”  
  
Yunho sighs. “I’m powerless in front of her. Every time she opens her mouth I lose 30 IQ points and turn into a bumbling idiot.”  
  
“She tends to have that effect,” Changmin smiles and turns to face him. Their arms go around each other, easy and natural. Changmin buries his nose in Yunho’s neck and breathes in his familiar scent before resting his head on his shoulder. Yunho hums a little and rocks them as a cool breeze picks up and ruffles their hair.  
  
“I’ve made a martyr of myself but I suspect this transition might be even more difficult for you than for me. At least I have experience living with my parents,” Changmin murmurs. Yunho smiles.  
  
“It’s okay. I doubt we’ll see your father very often and your mother is unlikely to seek out my company. I think I’ll be quite happy in the company of Mrs Parks and Jiyul and whoever else I can find to make friends with around here.”  
  
“So everyone basically.”  
  
Yunho giggles softly and Changmin shakes his head, but he’s grinning. He feels good now, in the aftermath of their decision. He nuzzles against Yunho’s neck and Yunho purrs and tilts his head to the side.  
  
Sora makes a sound and shifts. They both look around to see if she’s waking up, but she merely turns her head and keeps sleeping. Yunho smiles and nudges Changmin’s cheek with his nose.  
  
“It’s odd,” he murmurs. “When you first told me about the prophecy I thought it sounded so absurd, so completely unlikely. But somehow things have worked out so that it doesn’t seem so far-fetched now.”  
  
Changmin blinks at him. “What are you saying, that you really think Sora’s going to grow up and start a war?”  
  
“No,” Yunho smiles. “I think she’s going to save us all.”

 


	21. Epilogue

_24 years later. . ._  
  
At 25 years of age, Shim-Jung Sora becomes their youngest state governor in history. By then the rogue cause has become a popular movement, and the calls for supernatural liberation loud and demanding. She wins the election on a platform of promoting equality, helped by her half-vampire status and backed by her powerful grandfather, the now retired ex-President Shim. It comes as a surprise to people for the notoriously conservative President Shim to have a half-vampire liberal for a granddaughter, but that only endears her even more to them because it makes her political leanings almost rebellious in contrast. The truth is that Sora has her grandfather’s full support; the years have mellowed him, and there is little he can deny her.  
  
Her first act as governor is to abolish the mandatory tagging system, an act that other states across the country soon follow. The only part of the old system that remains in place are the mandatory inoculation shots and that new supernaturals be registered as such, for census reasons. Her second act is to change the Department of Disease and Pest Control to the Department of Supernatural Affairs and task them with the job of cleaning up the mess they’d made of the so-called ‘rogue problem’ over the years. By then the wide-spread knowledge of the Department’s brutality and a series of corruption scandals have seen it become a much-reviled division of society, and Sora has a hard time overhauling this image.  
  
She returns home to the manor late one night after a three-day trip to the capital. Her secretary, a terrifyingly competent young woman, is with her and they’re deep in discussion, but Sora breaks off as she spots Yunho coming out of a room just off he hallway. Her face lights up.  
  
“Daddy!” She flies into his arms, the stoic office of a governor forgotten as Yunho laughs and hugs her.  
  
“Welcome home. How was your trip?” The years have left him unchanged, his appearance still that of a young man. Sora is incredibly like him in looks and personality. She pulls back and grimaces up at him.  
  
“Tiring. The President is an infuriating man,” she says. Yunho grins.  
  
“Don’t let your grandfather hear that, they’re old friends.”  
  
“Sora?” Changmin emerges around the corner, clearly having heard them. He’s wearing an immaculate grey suit with a bottle green tie, his brown hair swept up off his face, accentuating the youthful curve of his features. He is as unchanged in appearance as Yunho, though after having eventually completed his interrupted PhD he has since become the Dean of their State University. He’s just returned from a function; even Yunho hasn’t greeted him yet.  
  
Sora’s expression softens as she sees him.  
  
“Father,” she smiles and goes to him, and Changmin kisses her forehead in greeting. Yunho is her best friend, her confidant and favorite companion in everything – but Changmin is her idol, her mentor and moral compass. There’s a reverence in her gaze when she looks at him that her interactions with Yunho lack; as a child she had always proclaimed that she would grow up and marry him, which had made Changmin laugh and Yunho shake his head. She’s long since grown out of such fantasies, but the devotion remains.  
  
“You look tired father,” Sora says, her fingers sweeping the dark circles under his eyes. Changmin smiles.  
  
“Just had a long day. Though it’s much better now that you’re here.”  
  
She beams up at him. “Join me for dinner? I’m starving.”  
  
“Mrs Parks had roast chicken made because she knew you’d be back today,” Yunho says. Sora makes a happy sound and claps her hands; roast chicken is her favorite food.  
  
“We’ll join you in a minute – go clean up and say hi to your grandparents,” Changmin says.  
  
Sora nods to her secretary and starts climbing the staircase. “Yes father,” she calls. Her phone rings, and she disappears in a flurry of talk and gestures to her secretary.  
  
Changmin watches her go, then turns to Yunho with a sigh.  
  
“Would it be terribly cliché if I said something along the lines of how they grow up so fast?” he asks. Yunho grins.  
  
“Yes, but that wouldn’t make it any less true.”  
  
They walk through the manor to Changmin’s study, a wide office on the second floor outfitted with oaken furniture. What they had intended as a brief sojourn of a few years at the manor had somehow become much longer, and as time passed Yunho found that he, Changmin and Sora were slowly taking over more and more rooms in the place. Changmin’s parents don’t seem to mind; they have their granddaughter’s unfailing affection, and in their advancing years that’s become far more valuable to them than material possession.  
  
Changmin enters his study and tugs his tie off, tossing it on the brown leather couch. He runs a hand through his hair, destroying its careful styling, and Yunho smiles as strands of it fall to frame his face.  
  
“Was the function really that boring?” he asks, leaning against Changmin’s desk and watching him shrug his jacket off.  
  
“You wouldn’t believe how boring. If you’d gone with me I would’ve at least had someone to talk to,” he gives Yunho a narrow look, which Yunho returns with an innocent smile.  
  
“But I was tired,” he says. After they returned to the city Yunho had taught dance at a couple of other schools before opening a studio of his own, which had since grown to become one of the leading dance companies in the country. His duties as its founder kept him busy, not least because he still insisted on teaching classes. Changmin kept telling him to leave it to his teachers but Yunho refused, saying that he hadn’t opened the company so he could spend all day stuck behind a desk.  
  
Changmin grumbles under his breath until Yunho slides an arm around his waist and pulls him closer, catching Changmin against his chest when he stumbles. He smiles and the annoyance melts out of Changmin’s face.  
  
“Hi,” Yunho murmurs, eyes half-lidded with ill-concealed intent. Changmin hovers closer, drawn like a moth to the flame.  
  
“Hi,” he smiles, arms rising to loop around Yunho’s neck.  
  
“So how was your day?” Yunho asks.  
  
“Absolute crap.”  
  
“That’s too bad. Anything I can do to make it better?”  
  
“Mm I’m sure we can think of something.”  
  
Their lips meet, soft and sure. Changmin coaxes Yunho’s mouth open and dips his tongue in briefly, a pleased sound rumbling through his chest as he gathers his taste. It stuns him sometimes that kissing Yunho can still feel as exciting as the first time. He draws away and attaches his mouth to Yunho’s neck, kissing him leisurely as Yunho’s head lolls to the side.  
  
“We promised to join Sora for dinner,” Yunho reminds him, but he punctuates it by grinding his hips up. Changmin groans and bites him softly.  
  
“Keep doing that and I’ll be done in about 5 minutes,” he says, and Yunho laughs. He tugs Changmin’s head up and kisses him again and this time it’s hot and wet and messy. They’re both panting by the end of it and Changmin is pleasantly flushed, his lips glistening. He licks them and smiles.  
  
“Okay. Day salvaged,” he says. He rests against Yunho for a second longer before pulling away with difficulty. “I have to make some calls,” Changmin says unwillingly.  
  
“Leave it,” Yunho says. “Sora’s home, I want to spend some time with her.”  
  
Changmin hesitates, then nods. “Yeah, me too. I want to ask her when she’s dumping that werewolf boyfriend of hers.”  
  
Yunho groans. “Can we not, I’m tired of you two arguing about it.”  
  
“He’s not good enough for her,” Changmin says stubbornly.  
  
“Nobody will ever be good enough for her my sweet,” Yunho pecks his nose. “We’ll have to settle for just okay.”  
  
Changmin sighs. His fingers brush against the back of Yunho’s neck, over the scar left from where his tag used to be. Most tagged supernaturals had gotten rid of theirs as soon as the old system was abolished – Changmin included – but Yunho had hesitated over removing his. He’d said he liked it for symbolic reasons, that it reminded him of who he belonged to, but Changmin thought it was demeaning and insisted he get rid of it. He didn’t need to embed a plastic chip in him to know that Yunho was his.  
  
Yunho curls his fingers under his chin and tilts his face up.  
  
“Hey,” he says. Changmin hums in acknowledgement. “We did good,” Yunho says, and gives him a silly little grin.  
  
Changmin knows he means Sora – which is true, despite her questionable taste in men – but he feels like it could apply to other aspects of their lives too. For many years now they have lived in that elusive state of mind that many crave but few find: happiness. He smiles and nuzzles against Yunho’s cheek.  
  
“Yeah,” Changmin says. “We did good.”


End file.
